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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors