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.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS