Ultra High Definition
Korean display companies that handed over the lead to their Taiwanese counterparts are fast regaining their share in the Ultra High Definition (UHD) panel market.
According to DisplaySearch on March 28, the world’s UHD and LCD panel market shares were grabbed by Samsung Display with 21.9 percent, ranking number two, and LG Display with 11.3 percent ranking number four, based on shipments as of last February.
Taiwanese Innolux was number one with 40.2 percent, and AU Optronics was number three with 12.6 percent. China’s China Star with 11.3 percent shared the number four spot with LG, followed by Japan’s Sharp, with 2.5 percent.
In terms of the market share by country, Korea (33.2 percent) is chasing after Taiwan (52.8 percent) trailed by China (11.6 percent) and Japan (2.5 percent), which are number three and four. The gap between Taiwan and Korea is closing fast. Even in July last year, Korea’s UHD panel share stood at 6.2 percent, trailing far behind Taiwan with 85.3 percent. However, Korea pulled the market share up more than five times, while Taiwan’s share reduced to two-thirds, during the last seven months.
In the meantime, DisplaySearch predicted that this year’s UHD panel market will jump seven times year-on-year to exceed 21 million sets, during the display industry conference that was held in Korea last week. The industry foresees that 6 to 9 million out of the total will be produced by Korean companies.