Market researcher DisplaySearch yesterday trimmed by 4 percent and 7 percent its forecast for global liquid-crystal-display (LCD) shipments this year and next year respectively as consumers tighten spending amid economic turbulence.
Shipments of LCD TVs could grow 29 percent to 102 million units this year rather than the 105.8 million units forecast in the third quarter, Austin, Texas-based DisplaySearch said.
“The [economic] crisis is influencing buying behavior and confidence at the point of consumer demand, especially in the US,” said Hisakazu Torii, a vice president at DisplaySearch, during a conference in Taipei yesterday.
“[The] impact of the US economic crisis on TV demand will likely spread globally to include emerging countries in 2009,” Torii said.
Next year, shipments could increase 20 percent to 122 million units, compared to the 131.5 million units previously estimated, said Torii, citing a preliminary forecast by DisplaySearch.
LCD TV revenues could shrink next year to below an estimate of US$79.5 billion for this year, making it the first contraction in the history of the LCD TV industry, the research house said.
“We feel demand is softer than we thought as consumers in the US and Europe, which consume a big portion of the world’s LCD TVs, stop buying,” said Chen Li-yi (陳立宜), head director of the TV business division at Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s No. 2 flat-panel supplier.
Reflecting stagnant demand, annual growth of LCD TV sell-through in the US is in a downward spiral, even though TV vendors have been cutting prices to spur demand, Torii said.
DisplaySearch’s survey found that since May, growth fell to about 20 percent in September, with 40 percent annual expansion in LCD TV sell-through. The pace could slow to 15 percent in the fourth quarter and less than 10 percent in the first quarter of next year, he said.
Weak demand in slim-screen TV sets has also been a headache for LCD panel makers as customers reduced orders and were cautious about building inventory on the back of a vague economic outlook, DisplaySearch said.
“We expect it will take a longer time, about 11 to 12 month, for panel makers and their customers to write off oversupply, compared to the nine months in took during the last downturn,” said David Hsieh (謝勤益), a vice president at DisplaySearch.
Hsieh, however, said he was optimistic that demand would recover in the second half of next year after a revival of the global economy.
“That means there is a high likelihood of shortage in panel supply in the second half when demand bounces back,” Hsieh said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day