Korean electronics giants Samsung and LG are cutting down their LCD production and aim to exit the LCD panel manufacturing business in the near future. Japan’s JDI is also suffered from weak business and sold its LCD production equipment to Apple reportedly. According to the latest investigations by the WitsView research division of TrendForce, these measures taken by the Korean and Japanese companies will led to declines in large size LCD production. Meanwhile, market share of Korean manufacturers in large-size panel capacity will shrink to below 10%.

Display makers worldwide are turning their focus from LCD to new technologies, first OLED, then Mini LED, as more and more products debuted. After introducing several OLED-based products including iPhone, Apple was said to unveil Mini LED-based iPad Pro later this year. While MSI is launching the Mini LED laptop this week.

(Image: Lextar)

Taiwan based display makers have been engaged in Mini LED based displays for a while and entered mass production phase. Major display maker in Taiwan such as AUO and Innolux have formed their supply chains with LED chip suppliers in Taiwan. AUO collaborated with Lextar, who makes the Mini LED backlight module for MSI’s new laptop. Meanwhile, Innolux gets LED chips from AOT and Epileds, both under the Foxconn Group. Innolux targets large sized TVs with its Mini LED technology.

2020 was expected to be a prospering year for Mini LED technology. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, many scheduled production plans and projects are now delayed.