The nation’s leading liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel makers are set to showcase their newest products during the annual LCD display show, one of the event’s organizers said yesterday.
The display show serves as a competitive arena for players in the LCD market, as well as providing an opportunity for industry watchers to keep an eye on the latest trends.
“This year, I believe ultra-thin and energy-saving displays will be one of the major trends,” said Murphy Lin (林穎毅), an analyst with market researcher Photonic Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA, 光電協會).
PIDA is one of the organizer of the three-day fair, which begins tomorrow and runs until Friday at Taipei’s World Trade Center Hall 1.
The nation’s two biggest LCD panel suppliers, AU Optronics (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), plan to showcase new 42-inch TV LCD screens. The screens are as thin as 19.8mm and substitute light-emitting diode (LED) back-lights for traditional cold cathode fluorescent lamps.
AU Optronics, which supplies flat panels that use LED back-lights for Apple Inc’s ultra-thin and light MacBook Air notebook, said it also plans to display new LED back-light displays for notebook computers, including one that uses a 13.3-inch screen.
The screen is only 1.9mm thick, but can deliver pictures as sharp as bulkier LCD panels, the company said.
The share of laptop computers equipped with slim screens using LED back-lights is expected to rise to around 10 percent this year, up from between 3 percent and 4 percent last year, PIDA said.
Touch panels will also be under the spotlight this year, Lin said.
Mobile phone makers and consumer electronics makers are using more touch screens in their products after the success of Apple’s iPhone last summer.
To meet the growing demand for better interfaces for consumer electronics gadgets, AU Optronics plans to showcase its first 8-inch charge-sensing in-cell multi-touch LCD panel. It plans to ship the product to customers by the end of the current quarter.
Ritdisplay Corp (錸寶), a flat panel manufacturing arm of optical-disk maker Ritek Corp (錸德), also plans to display the world’s first in-cell touch organic LED (OLED) panel during the display show, PIDA said.
“Flat panel makers, especially LCD panel makers, detected a new business opportunity in touch panels late last year. Their expansion into the touch panel industry will pose a threat to existing touch panel makers,” Lin said.
A total of 261 companies, both local and foreign, will exhibit their products at the show. There will be 700 booths this year, up from around 500 booths last year, as a result of more exhibition space, PIDA said.
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