Sharp Corp, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) Japanese subsidiary, would start supplying OLED displays for smartphones to Hon Hai this summer at the earliest, Sharp president and chief executive officer Tai Jeng-wu (戴正吳) said yesterday.
“Sharp will have mass production capability for OLED displays used in smartphones as soon as this quarter, but the shipping schedule is estimated to be between June and September to meet product launch schedules,” Tai told reporters after a news conference in Taipei.
Tai did not disclose the identity of the clients for whom Sharp would be supplying the displays.
The company is reportedly eyeing a share in the supply chain of Apple Inc’s OLED-screen iPhone X, of which Hon Hai is the sole assembler.
Samsung Electronics Co dominates OLED display technology in the smartphone industry and is the sole supplier for the iPhone X.
Although Samsung is ahead of its rivals, Sharp has been stepping up its efforts to catch up with the South Korean company in OLED display development, Tai said.
Sharp’s board in October last year approved an investment in technology related to small OLED screens and the company last month produced sample OLED displays for handsets, he said.
Sharp would also introduce a new smartphone featuring an OLED screen under its own brand in June or July, Tai said.
Sharp would be the first Japanese company to have the capability to produce OLED displays for smartphones, the Nikkei newspaper reported earlier this month.
Japan Display Inc, Sharp’s Japanese peer, is expected to begin mass production of small OLED displays by next year at the earliest, it said.
In related news, Sharp Taiwan yesterday announced a collaboration with Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) Yongling Organic Farm (永齡農場) to sell Sharp refrigerators with the farm’s mix-and-match vegetables in Taiwan in a bid to expand the two companies’ presence in the domestic market.
The farm is to supply up to 26 weeks of vegetable sets free of charge to people who purchase Sharp refrigerators on the farm’s Web site, Sharp’s Taiwan branch said.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased 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 snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS