Taiwanese manufacturers of the panels used to make flat-screen computer displays are set to grab an even larger slice next year of a global market they now control two-thirds of, analysts said yesterday.
By the end of next year, Taiwan is expected to control 73 percent of the thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel market for computer monitors, up from 65 percent of this year, according to a report given yesterday by Li Hsiou-ling (勵秀玲) of the Market Intelligence Center (MIC) under the Institute for the Information Industry.
Falling prices have encouraged more people to buy new computer systems with flat-screen computer monitors and replace the bulky cathode-ray tube (CRT) screens in existing systems.
Worldwide LCD monitor sales are expected to jump almost 60 percent to around 51 million this year compared to last year, Li said, and will grow a further 35 percent next year to over 68.5 million.
"Price is a major factor in the rise of LCD monitors," Li said. "But for the average consumer the current average selling price of between US$300 and US$330 still needs to come down."
Local manufacturers AU Optronics Corp (
Dell outsources 55 percent of its production to Taiwanese manufacturers, MIC said yesterday, while HP places 90 percent of its LCD monitor orders here.
"I think it is possible for Taiwan's flat-panel makers to break the 70-percent barrier in the computer monitor market next year," said Martha Chen (
"They are increasing their production based in China which will probably win them more orders, and they have a ready supply of downstream suppliers," she said.
In a recent report, US-based researcher DisplaySearch already predicted that Taiwan's share of the global flat-panel monitor market would increase to 69 percent in the third quarter from 63 percent in the second.
But when panels for notebook computers, color-screen mobile phones, flat-screen televisions and other consumer products are taken into consideration, Taiwan falls into second place behind rivals in South Korea with 39 percent of the world's total TFT-LCD panel market, compared to South Korea's 43 percent, Japan's 14 percent and China's 3 percent, according to figures released yesterday by MIC.
Taiwan is not expected to overtake South Korea in the next twelve months as manufacturers here were slow in opening more efficient and advanced fifth-generation (5G) facilities which produce bigger panels, or more panels from an original piece of glass.
"The [South] Koreans are well ahead of Taiwanese companies," Chen said. "The Taiwanese are trying to close the gap."
With more than a year's head start on the Taiwanese, the South Koreans have fine-tuned production at their 5G plants so that the number of defective panels has been reduced drastically.
"South Korea's 5G production already has a yield of more than 80 percent," MIC's Ann Hsu (
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to