Innolux Corp (群創) and AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) are to ship the world’s first ultra-high-definition 8K LCD TV panels next quarter, one quarter ahead of their South Korean rivals, in an attempt to repeat the success in unveiling 4K panels, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.
Innolux started shipping a small volume of 65-inch 8K TV panels for customers, while AUO is to ship 65-inch 8K TV panels for global TV vendors next quarter, according to WitsView, an LCD research team of TrendForce.
South Korean panel makers, led by LG Display Co, are expected to unveil 98-inch and 65-inch 8K TV panels at the end of this year, WitsView said.
BOE Technology Group (京東方), China’s largest panel maker, might ship its first 8K TV panels in the second half of next year, the researcher said.
“The 8K TV panel is a business opportunity for Taiwanese LCD manufacturers as long as they do not engage in a capacity race with their rivals,” WitsView senior research director Eric Chiou (邱宇彬) said by telephone.
Executives from Innolux and AUO have said that they will focus on developing products with higher value and better margins in an effort to differentiate themselves from Chinese latecomers and to avoid a price war.
The companies have completely exited the standard 32-inch LCD TV panel market.
8K panels have a pixel density of 4,320 pixels per inch, double that of 4K panels and 16 times that of full high-definition panels.
However, this time, local panel makers might not be able to benefit from selling 8K panels as much as they did in introducing 4K TV panels, Chiou said.
Taiwanese firms are limited by their capacity, as 8K TV panels are mostly for bigger TVs, starting with 65-inch models, he said.
That is compared with entry-level 4K TV at 40 inches.
WitsView expects slow uptake of 8K LCD TVs, citing the lack of a mature ecosystem.
Only a few 8K LCD TVs will be available on the market this year, WitsView said, adding that these will be equipped with 4K chips, as 8K chips are under development.
By 2018, the penetration rate will only reach low single-digit percentages, Chiou forecast.
Another hurdle is a lack of 8K contents, the researcher said.
Apart from Japan, almost no content providers are developing 8K programs, it said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS