The nation's flat-panel display manufacturers need to start paying attention to advanced technologies and widen their focus beyond mainstream thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-display (TFT-LCD) technology, a Market Intelligence Center (MIC, 資策會) analyst said yesterday.
“As market followers, Taiwanese panel companies such as AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) have been moving on the right track, but they seem to be showing less interest in advanced technologies because of concern about efficiency and production capacity,” David Chen (陳賜賢), a senior industry analyst at the MIC, said at a forum in Taipei.
Chen said significant breakthroughs in new technologies such as active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes (AM-OLED) and electronic paper were introduced at the Society for Information Display Week in Los Angeles this year.
He estimated that AM-OLED technology would enter mass production three years from now, while electronic paper would take a while longer.
Taiwanese companies are among the world’s leading manufacturers of flat-panel displays, Chen said, adding that their strength lay in their speed, which enables them to immediately offer what the market needs, whereas South Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics Corp and LG Group are less flexible.
“However, unlike South Korea, the biggest weakness of the panel industry in Taiwan is the lack of manufacturing capabilities for key materials and precision equipment from upstream, as Taiwan has long been focusing on original equipment manufacturer [OEM] and original design manufacturer [ODM] markets,” Chen said.
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