Under the pressure of price competition and oversupply in the LED industry, LED producers worldwide have been devoting their efforts in organization transformation and reconstruction as well as focusing on innovative technologies. The development of Mini LED and Micro LED has been viewed as the new opportunity for LED firms. LEDinside has estimated that the revenue of Micro LED and Mini LED will reach US$1.38 billion by 2022.

Many companies have revealed their plans to ship Mini LED products in the second half of 2018 including Taiwanese panel makers AUO and Innolux. AUO has scheduled to release Mini LED gaming products and has pushed the amendment of the company’s portfolio to target high-end products such as extra-large TVs.

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Innolux has planned to debut Mini LED public information display (PID) by the end of the year and to release large size TV in 2Q19. The company has developed active matrix Mini LED which is driven by TFT and believes that AM Mini LED has the potential to compete with OLED with its high brightness and high contrast ratio. As one member of the Foxconn group, Innolux has integrated resources from other partners of the Foxconn group including AOT, Epileds, eLux and Sharp to boost the development of Mini LED and Micro LED technologies.

The private placement project of the LED packaging company Unity Opto also indicates a strategic option of LED firms. With the investment from ArFlex, a subsidiary of Wistron, and I-Chiun, Unity Opto hopes to enhance the cooperation relationships and to introduce various resources for new product developments and future transformation. Unity Opto has unveiled that its Mini LED technology is designed to work with the applications of different clients. The company has planned to produce Mini LED in small volume by 2H18 and to manufacture in volume in 1H19 with the expectation to increase the production of Mini LED in the coming years.