AUO to Fill Rising Orders from Sony and Apple

Taipei, Dec. 22, 2012 (CENS)--After its break up with Samsung of South Korea, Japanese consumer-electronic company Sony will turn to AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), a maker of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel in Taiwan, to procure TV panels, industry sources said.

In addition to Sony, more and more Japanese LCD TV vendors, such as Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp etc., have been strengthening cooperation with major TFT-LCD panel suppliers in Taiwan.

In 2012, according to some sources in the supply chain, Samsung was the major supplier of LCD TV panels to Sony, while Taiwan-based AUO and Chimei Innolux Corp. (CMI) were second-class suppliers. From 2013, however, the sources added, Sony will transfer all its TV-panel orders from Samsung to AUO. In addition, Sony and AUO have kicked off broad-range cooperation in new technologies such as active matrix organic light-emit diode (AMOLED). Sony's strong technological capability, plus AUO's big manufacturing capacity, the sources said, have broken Samsung's monopoly in the global AMOLED market.

Apple of the U.S. is also rapidly decreasing panel procurements from Samsung. In addition to the original iPad mini display suppliers AUO and LG Display (of South Korea), Apple has asked other companies, including CMI of Taiwan, Century Display (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. of China, and Panasonic of Japan, to send product samples for certification. Global sales of the iPad mini tablet PCs are expected to grow to about 50 million units in 2013, from about 12 million in 2012. Industry sources said that at least one new iPad mini-panel supplier will be chosen by Apple soon.

AUO has overcome some technical problems in production and kicked off mass production of iPad mini panels for Apple.

NPD DisplaySerach, a major global display-market research firm, pointed out that before the first half of 2013, the iPad mini will be Apple's most important tablet model and the company will continue to increase shipments. In addition, Sony is expected to ship some 15.5 million or more LCD TVs in 2013, creating more demand for AUO's TV panels.