Sony has decided to shift more contract orders to AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) and its production arms from Hon Hai, likely due to Hon Hai build ties-up with its major competitor Sharp in the market for LCD TVs.

According to industry insiders, as soon as building partnership with Sony, AUO has seen orders for LCD TVs significantly increase since the beginning of Q3 in 2012, with lots of which allegedly coming from the Japanese customer.

Meanwhile, BriView Electronics Corp., a production arm of AUO, Lextar Electronics Corp., an LED maker, and I-Chuan Precision Industry Co., an electronic manufacturer, also benefit from AUO’s growing partnership with Sony, as all of them, with assistance of AUO, have joined Sony’s supply chain of LCD TVs.

To fill Sony’s orders, AUO designates BriView as its contract assembler, and sources needed LED bars from I-Chuan, which are all made of packaged LED chips from Lextar and used as the backlight source for Sony’s LCD TVs.

The partnership with Sony brings AUO more benefits than expected, as the both sides have stepped up joint development of AMOLED panels, which will help to drive AUO’s core business forward to better compete against Korean rivals in the future.