AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, yesterday said it has signed an agreement with Japanese display material supplier Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd to jointly develop next-generation OLED displays and patents in an attempt to catch up with rivals making the high-resolution panels for smartphones and TVs.
The Hsinchu-based company has repeatedly postponed its timetable to mass-produce OLED panels and industry analysts question whether AUO will be able to catch up with market leaders, even with Idemitsu’s help.
Rival Samsung Mobile Displays has started manufacturing active matrix OLED displays in a fifth-generation factory and has unveiled its plan to build an eighth-generation factory, according to a report by market researcher NPD DisplaySearch.
AUO plans to start production of the first batch of OLED panels for mobile devices next quarter, company spokesperson Hsiao Ya-wen (蕭雅文) said by telephone yesterday. That is two quarters behind the company’s original schedule of starting commercial operation at the end of last year.
“This [deal] will accelerate business growth in AUO’s small-sized OLED displays for smartphones and tablets, which have emerged as a new growth area in the display industry, and that of large-sized OLED displays for TVs,” AUO said in a statement.
Shipments of OLED TVs are expected to grow to more than 11 million in 2017, from 113,000 units this year, NPD DisplaySearch forecast. By revenues, OLED displays were expected to contribute more than US$4 billion to panel makers last year and to increase to more than US$20 billion by 2018, the US research firm said.
Despite potential growth in the OLED market, “AUO probably will not be able to enjoy the price premium delivered by OLED displays as it has lagged far behind its competitors,” Roger Yu (游智超), a LCD industry analyst with Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券), said.
Yu expects AUO to begin large-scale manufacture of OLED displays in the second half of next year, meaning the Taiwanese company would be at least one-and-half years late in supplying such high-resolution thin displays.
“The strategic alliance with Idemitsu will be of very limited help to AUO in speeding up its production of OLED displays,” Yu said.
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS