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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump weighed in on a pressing national issue: The rebranding of a restaurant chain. Last week, Cracker Barrel, a Tennessee company whose nationwide locations lean heavily on a cozy, old-timey aesthetic — “rocking chairs on the porch, a warm fire in the hearth, peg games on the table” — announced it was updating its logo. Uncle Herschel, the man who once appeared next to the letters with a barrel, was gone. It sparked ire on the right, with Donald Trump Jr leading a charge against the rebranding: “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel?!” Later, Trump Sr weighed
HEADWINDS: Upfront investment is unavoidable in the merger, but cost savings would materialize over time, TS Financial Holding Co president Welch Lin said TS Financial Holding Co (台新新光金控) said it would take about two years before the benefits of its merger with Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) become evident, as the group prioritizes the consolidation of its major subsidiaries. “The group’s priority is to complete the consolidation of different subsidiaries,” Welch Lin (林維俊), president of the nation’s fourth-largest financial conglomerate by assets, told reporters during its first earnings briefing since the merger took effect on July 24. The asset management units are scheduled to merge in November, followed by life insurance in January next year and securities operations in April, Lin said. Banking integration,
LOOPHOLES: The move is to end a break that was aiding foreign producers without any similar benefit for US manufacturers, the US Department of Commerce said US President Donald Trump’s administration would make it harder for Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc to ship critical equipment to their chipmaking operations in China, dealing a potential blow to the companies’ production in the world’s largest semiconductor market. The US Department of Commerce in a notice published on Friday said that it was revoking waivers for Samsung and SK Hynix to use US technologies in their Chinese operations. The companies had been operating in China under regulations that allow them to import chipmaking equipment without applying for a new license each time. The move would revise what is known
RSS