General

Display Market

Flat Panel Display Market Looks for New Sources of Growth

Paul Semenza is responsible for managing the North American and European analyst teams at DisplaySearch. Prior to joining DisplaySearch, Paul managed display research at iSuppli and Stanford Resources. Paul has worked at the National Research Council and the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment. Paul has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Engineering from Tufts University, and a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University.Paul Semenza, Senior Vice President, DisplaySearch, an NPD Group Company

The successes of the flat panel display industry can be seen everywhere, from the new televisions displacing older CRT (cathode ray tube) sets in the home, to the proliferation of full-color, video-capable screens in mobile handsets, portable media players, and automotive infotainment systems. However, having passed the milestone of $100 billion in revenues in 2007, the flat panel display market is likely to enter a slower growth period. After growing by 17 percent in 2007 and what is likely to be a similar amount in 2008, DisplaySearch expects revenue growth to fall to less than 5 percent per year from 2009 to 2012. Why does slower growth look likely, and what is the industry doing to try to reinvigorate growth?

Flat Panel Display Market Revenues and Growth (Source: Display Search, 2008)

Slowdown Coming

The industry has based its growth on several key markets: the PC market, first in notebook PCs and then conversion of CRT desktop monitors to flat panels; the TV market, which has seen rapid conversion to flat panels in developed economies; and mobile handsets, in which the smartphone concept has proliferated from business to consumer markets... Read more

The European Display Market – Exciting Times for the Display Industry

Mark Fihn is publisher & editor-in-chief at Veritas et Visus, which provides in depth news and information about the focused topics in the displays industry. Five topics currently are the bedrock for the Veritas et Visus newsletters: Flexible displays, Display-related standards and regulations, 3D displays, High resolution displays, and Touch panels. Prior to Veritas et Visus, Mark worked for three years at the market research firm DisplaySearch. He additionally participated for 15 years in computer system and LCD-related procurement and strategy at Texas Instruments and Dell Computer while living in the United States and Taiwan. Mark was educated at St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota), the American Graduate School of International Management (Phoenix, Arizona), St. Edward's University (Austin, Texas), and in the University of Texas at Austin's doctoral program in International Business.Bob Raikes, Managing Director, Meko Ltd. (UK)

It’s interesting to get the chance to step back from the daily and weekly news from the display industry and look at the long term trends in the European market for displays. One of the significant trends has been the move of TV manufacturing into the countries of Central Europe, driven and encouraged by the relocation of LCD and PDP module making into those countries. High quality colour TFT LCDs used in TVs, computer monitors and notebook computers are made first by constructing a ‘cell’, a sandwich of a transistor array on one sheet of glass and a colour filter on another, with liquid crystal material in between. This cell is then fabricated into a ‘module’ that includes the backlight unit, polarisers, metalwork and electronics. The module is then built into a TV set with the addition of more metalwork, extra processing, a power supply, a remote control, a casing, loudspeakers etc.

Large area LCD demand in Europe (actual up to Q1 08 – balance is forecast; Meko Ltd., 2008).)

In the days when CRT was the dominant TV display technology, more than half of the TVs sold in Europe were built in Turkey, even though they may have been sold under other brands. (Turkey has a special deal with the EU to eliminate the duty that is normally payable on TV import to the EU). Sets were also made in the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France... Read more

OLEDs, Flexible Displays and the Future

Lawrence Gasman is the principal analyst and co-founder of NanoMarkets, where he conducts his own industry analysis in display, photovoltaics and materials markets as well as managing the NanoMarkets research team. NanoMarkets is a market research firm specializing in analysis and forecasting of thin-film, organic and printed electronics markets. Mr. Gasman’s latest book is a survey of nanotechnology commercialization.Lawrence Gasman, Principal Analyst, NanoMarkets

The display industry is currently under pressure to find new sources of revenue and increase profitability. The transition from CRT to FPD is now moving inexorably towards completion and the economies of scale that the FPD industry has found in using ever-larger substrates seems to be petering out. For these reasons and others the display industry is seeking new technologies that can boost its future prospects. There are several potential directions in which the display industry might look for new profits, but OLEDs and flexible displays look particularly promising. Flexible displays may use OLED technology, but in the short term seem more likely to be based on e-paper.

Revenue projections for OLED displays and lighting (Source: NanoMarkets, 2008)

OLEDs

OLED displays first started to appear in the early 1990s. By 2004, firms such as Philips, DuPont and Kodak had quit the business. Active matrix (AM) OLED displays presented technical difficulties and LCDs kept getting better. Eventually, OLEDs found a home at the low end of the display market; in small displays for the MP3 and cell phone sub-display market primarily... Read more