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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
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’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
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
RSS