Innolux Corp (群創光電), the world’s No. 3 LCD panel maker, yesterday said it plans to ship more than 2.6 million ultra-high-resolution LCD TV panels this year, mainly due to strong demand in China and Japan.
That would represent about 2.4 fold growth from 500,000 units it shipped last year, as Innolux — the first panel maker in the world to offer 4K screens — expands its product lineup from 28-inch panels to 65-inch panels.
“Chinese and Japanese customers are constantly increasing orders,” company president Wang Jyh-chau (王志超) told reporters.
Market researcher NPD DisplaySearch forecast global shipments of ultra-high-resolution 4K TV panels would soar to 2.6 million units this year.
“The forecast has to be raised,” Wang said.
Innolux hopes to reduce its costs and help drive down retail prices of 4K TV sets to 1.3 times of the price of LCD TV sets to help boost demand, Wang said.
Slim-screen TV sets equipped with 4K panels are priced two to three times higher than average LCD TVs, he said.
Ultra-high-resolution 4K TV sets are expected to account for 1.2 percent of the world’s total LCD TV market this year, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said.
These sets market share will only rise by 5 percent by 2016 because of the lack of high-resolution TV programs, it said.
Given the strong demand for its 4K TV panels, Innolux would not commercialize OLED TV panels in the near future, Wang said.
Samsung Electronics and LG Display have both invested heavily in next-generation OLED TV panels.
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