Innolux Corp (群創光電), the world’s No. 3 LCD flat-panel maker, is expected to become a new touch panel supplier to Apple Inc for its iPad Mini tablets, market researcher NPD DisplaySearch said yesterday.
That would be the latest progress made by Taiwanese panel makers in gaining a foothold in supplying touch panels used in tablets. Last year, the market was dominated by South Korean and Japanese firms, including Samsung Electronics Co, LG Display Co and Sharp Corp, NPD DisplaySearch said.
South Korea’s LG Display Co and Taiwan’s AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) are the major touch panel suppliers for the iPad Mini, NPD DisplaySearch Greater China region vice president David Hsieh (謝勤益) said.
“Innolux and China’s Century Display (深超光電) will receive certificates for product qualification [from Apple] to supply [touch panels] for the iPad Mini,” Hsieh said.
Innolux said on Tuesday that it plans to ship its first touch panels for smartphones and tablets using its touch-on-display technology by the end of this year.
Innolux declined to comment on whether the new touch panels would be made using the in-cell technology currently used on the iPad Mini and iPhone 5.
“Smartphones and tablets are our focus this year. Our target is to ship 7-inch screens this year,” Yang Chiu-lien (楊秋蓮), head of Innolux’s touch panel division, said on Tuesday.
Since 2008, Innolux has been supplying flat-panel screens to Apple for its iPhones, iPod nano music players and iPad tablets, Yang said.
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
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As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what