Mobile Internet era survival transformation of the LCD panel factory

Since LCD screens have begun to enter people's lives, LCD panel makers have always played a very important role. The mobile phones and digital products that bring a lot of convenience to our lives, and even the display screens in the calculators, are inseparable from the help of LCD panel manufacturers. They have always existed around us, but they are rarely used as “behind the scenes”. Everybody pays attention. Until LCD TVs and liquid crystal displays were widely available, it was only after everyone understood the importance of LCD panels that they began to learn more about them.


In the past few decades, LCD TVs, liquid crystal displays, and notebook computer makers have been the biggest customers and the major source of profits for panel makers. Although the mobile phone sales are much larger than the first three, but after all, the screen size is too small, before the iPhone was launched, these mobile panel profits are relatively small, it can be said that TV and monitor market prosperity and panel makers' performance and profit directly hook up. Fortunately, the market demand for both of these years has been growing substantially. Therefore, LCD panel makers do not need to make much change, but it is sufficient to continuously improve the process and technology, such as LED backlight, 3D display technology, high refresh rate, ultra-thin Panels, OLED display technology, they have given everyone enough surprises.



As TV and monitor sales growth enter the bottleneck period and the market continues to be weak, panel makers can only maintain price stability and profits by reducing production capacity. They need to find new growth points. The smart phone has set off a wave of the Internet at this time, especially in the emerging mobile Internet field. Many traditional enterprises have begun to transition to the Internet to adapt to the new development and changes in the industry. As a relatively “traditional” LCD panel maker Should it comply with this change?



In fact, although the "transition to the Internet" is the overall direction and trend, the blind chanting of slogans is of little practical significance. Although panel makers have not shouted such slogans on a large scale, they have found new directions for transformation in the past few years through constant attempts. Let's take a look at how LCD panel makers respond to the great changes in the overall industrial environment.
Adjusting the structure to increase mobile panel revenue We mentioned above that the LCD TV and display market has entered a growth bottleneck in recent years. Although these manufacturers have developed some new technologies to stimulate the market and increase sales, such as 3D, curved surfaces, etc. However, it is obviously inferior to smart phones and tablet PCs in sales increments and public attention. The small-size LCD panel products that have been in the “periphery” of the past have initially been concerned by these manufacturers. Although the profit of their individual products is relatively low, the large increase in sales volume has allowed them to find new breakthroughs. According to DisplaySearch statistics, the number of mobile LCD panel shipments reached 200,000 in 2014, reaching a record high.



With the introduction of the iPhone, the attention and demand of the smart phone market have been rapidly improved. At the same time, all major mobile phone manufacturers have also engaged in a fierce "arms race" on the screen and other hardware accessories to the LCD panel makers. More requests. In the case of limited single-product profits, many panel makers adopt a “quality-enhancing” strategy that uses the relatively high quality of small-screen products to use the latest R&D technology first on mobile phone panels such as AMOLED and Quantum. Some of the advanced technologies used today, such as those used in LCD TVs, have appeared in mobile phones a few years ago.



In the highly competitive smartphone market, major manufacturers all want to use the best performance display screens, and these high-end devices also have a very high market demand, so that panel manufacturers can increase the number of mobile panels by adding the latest technology. The profit rate of the product, thus increasing the overall income. In this way, we can avoid the negative effects caused by the lack of growth in the television and display markets as much as possible, so that overall revenue will continue to grow.

R&D, innovation, and expansion of industry use methods <br> In addition to adjusting the production pattern, in addition to mobile phones such as mobile LCD panels more effort, in the large-screen LCD panel market these manufacturers will naturally not neglect, its higher unit price natural It is a natural guarantee of high profits. However, in addition to traditional fields such as televisions and displays, panel makers are also actively expanding new customers to expand their use of the industry through their R&D innovations. Medical devices, public commercial display screens, and special on-vehicle display devices are near. In the past few years, the main development direction of panel makers.

Medical display devices and public commercial display devices have experienced very rapid growth in recent years. According to DisplaySearch statistics and forecasts, sales of medical displays will increase at a rate of 5% per year between 2014 and 2018, which is very impressive for products with single product prices of several tens of millions. More modern hospitals now replace traditional films with professional monitors. Since medical display devices require products with very powerful screen resolution capabilities, the LCD panels used in these devices are the most top-notch, and single-item products are expensive, and naturally, they can bring more profits to manufacturers.



The same applies to public commercial display devices. We can see them in subways, auto shows, airports, high-end hotels, and shopping malls. We even include some spliced ​​video walls and irregular screens (such as long-form displays). Scroll to play public information). Such equipment is usually installed in a modern building or upgraded from existing equipment. According to DisplaySearch, the sales volume of public commercial display devices has increased significantly for six consecutive quarters, of which the growth rate in Eastern Europe has reached 204% in 2014, and the market potential in developing countries will be even greater. Annual shipments will increase by 3.3 million units.




Another huge potential market is in on-board equipment. As electronic devices in cars have become more diversified, the status of the screen has also been continuously improved. For example, Tesla is equipped with a large-sized central control liquid crystal display. In 2014, shipments reached 85 million units, an increase of 30% compared to 2013. This number will continue to increase this year. This is also the cake that the future LCD panel makers need to compete for.

Technological improvement subverts the traditional concept of use <br> With the continuous advancement of technology, display screens have better display effects, lower power consumption, thinner body thickness and more forms. After the introduction of new technologies, people began to use them to do things that were previously impossible to do, such as using ultra-thin OLED TVs as a picture frame to hide in the wall, or as a transparent screen as a window glass. In front of everyone, there are many things people never dared to imagine before.



In fact, many of the latest display technologies are no longer simply the introduction of concept-based products. Taking the LG "Gallery" OLED TV as an example, its OLED ultra-thin features make it possible to hide it in the wall, and designers create a The home environment is completely integrated in the appearance of the program; and transparent LCD screen can be used in the window display cabinet, you can directly display product information and discount promotions promotional news.



Previously, some integrators will perform certain "refitting" of LCD panels according to customer requirements, such as adding multi-touch technology, installing cameras to achieve accurate marketing, and pushing advertisements of different contents for users of different ages and genders, allowing ATMs to use ATMs. The privacy of the screen protection is stronger, and so on, but now the LCD panel makers decided to do this thing in person and subvert the traditional operation concept by launching an overall solution. It is no longer just a single hardware product such as LCD panels.

Summary <br> As a pure upstream hardware manufacturer, the LCD panel does not seem to be able to catch up with the latest Internet vocabularies. However, these manufacturers do not blindly go to meet this idea and make some more "outrageous" things. Through the combination of industry changes and the actual experience of consumers, a number of micro-innovation technologies have been introduced so as to constantly ensure the vigor of the company, and the overall business will be further developed and even promoted in the event that the growth of traditional industries is hampered. IT industry development.