Slashdot Mirror
Taiwan and South Korea's LCD Market-Share Battle
prostoalex writes: "This lengthy article on Reuters Web site, filled with numbers and analyst references, talks about Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers starting a price war in the field of LCD. Apparently, last year all Taiwan-based manufacturers lost money, while Koreans made money, and the companies are ready to slash their prices in turn for market share." From my reading of the article, it looks like the manufacturers may actually be reluctant to trade profits for market share, but this kind of competition still sounds good for LCD buyers.
The Korean company Samsung has a lot to do with this, I think. They absolutely own the high end market. I'm lucky enough to have a Samsung 240T, which is a 24" diagonal unit that can do 1920x1200 and can mix the digital and analog inputs (picture in picture). At $4995 (almost two years ago) it wasn't cheap, but it's rock solid, gorgeous, has an incredible viewing angle, and nothing else came close (at the time, anyway). Samsung used to have a rep as a crapfacturer, but these days they've really come up in the world.
Cantankerous old coot since 1957.
Posted article reads:
However, the article reads:
If the poster is accurate, this means that the Taiwanese profits have grown from some unknown negative to a postive 20 in less than a year. Decent gains on profits if you ask me.
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
As a software engineer/lead dude in Taiwan, i feel that the more fabs outputting the merrier. I keep my job and everyone stays happy -- obviously the customer will benefit the most from such a competitive environment. Kinda like the RAM market was a few years back.
... but just remember AUO Fab 8 and Chimei Fab 3 in Taiwan coming up soon. LG / Samsung has one 5G running as we speak and probably another one coming soon. In fact, I heard AUO Fab 9 will be done by the end of next year...
Right now I'm working on Acer-Unipac Line 8 which is a 5G (fifth generation) outfit that put's out glass beginning in the 21" form-factor. The previous fabs like L6/L5 will pick up speed in the 17" arena. I think Samsung's newest place in Korea is also 5G and was up and running well before Acer.
The next 5G fab coming up is Chimei Fab 3 in Tainan . Both the Acer and Chimei fabs will be rolling full production by next spring. This will bring TV-class LCD panel prices down quite a bit.
The carrier sizes for these babies are huge -- I mean like the size of your regular cubicle. Good ole wafer fabs you used to be able to hand-carry the product around. These you need a forklift. But since they don't have any "clean" forklifts they have to use these funky $60,000 USD handcarts that move them around.
Anyway, I'm blabbing
So, I probably said too much, but I didn't sign any NDA, so I don't care...