The move by three Japanese companies to merge their display operations, to become the world's largest supplier of high-performance displays used in smartphones and tablet devices, will include active matrix (AM)OLED as well as LCD technology.
Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi recently merged their display operations, together controlling over 21% of the global market for small and medium displays. In comparison, Samsung Mobile Display supplies less than 12% of this market, according to DisplaySearch.
The government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) will invest around $2.6 billion (€1.9 million) in the merged unit, called Japan Display, to hold a majority share of 70%, while the three firms will each take a 10% stake.
INCJ, Hitachi, Sony, and Toshiba are aiming to sign definitive and legally-binding agreements in the next few months 2011, and to complete the business integration in the first half of 2012.
High-performance displays
While the Korean electronics industry has aggressively targeted large-size displays and Taiwanese electronics companies have focused on cost-effective production of displays, Japanese companies have invested in technologies for producing high-performance displays, especially for small and medium-size devices such as smartphones.
Toshiba has developed low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) backplane technology. LTPS is used to produce backplanes for high-performance AMOLED and also LCDs found in smartphones, one of the fastest-growing display-based devices.
Sony had limited commercial success in the past when it launched a small-sized television featuring an AMOLED frontplane. Currently Samsung Mobile Display dominates the market for AMOLED displays in smartphones.
The joint Japanese venture will help ensure demand for high-performance display gadgets, such as smartphones and tablet computers, is met in future.
The new venture is also expected to invest in R&D, focused on the development of high-potential next-generation technologies, including higher resolution and thinner AMOLED displays, in order to drive the market for AMOLED technology.
+Plastic Electronics will be appearing at the OLEDs World Summit 2011 conference on 26-28 September in San Francisco, California, the US.
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Innovation Network Corporation of Japan
The government-backed venture has invested in Japan Display, which is expected to invest in AMOLED display development
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OLEDs World Summit 2011
+Plastic Electronics will be appearing at the forthcoming OLEDs World Summit on 26-28 September in California, US
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