This week, there was less news than normal, because of all the holidays, so we decided to combine the Large and Mobile Display Monitor newsletters into a single issue. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we promise 48 issues in a year, so as this is issue 51, it’s a bonus issue, so you haven’t missed out! We will not have an issue next week because of CES.
I looked back last week at 2016 as it has been a big year for OLED. What other trends have we seen? (and I refuse to think about politics or the loss of celebrities!)
In TV, curved has gradually gone out of fashion with everyone except Samsung, whose vertical integration gives it a big advantage. It will be revealing to see what Samsung shows at CES in curved TVs next week. I have argued against the use of curved displays for TVs, although I think they are a good idea for monitors, which are usually used by a single viewer. Monitors continue to be developed in curved formats.
Quantum dots are going to be important and the big breakthrough in developing air-processable QDs that we reported on from SID and onwards. They will help LCD fight back against OLED and QDs will get used in lots of other displays to enable wider colour gamut and HDR. WCG will become more widely available at the display level, although it’s going to take time for the content side to catch up. UltraHD has been a big trend this year for TVs, although the impact in smaller displays of UHD have been very limited. The adoption of HDR by the EBU recently will help to boost the availability and impact of UHD content and HDR.
Monitors continue to develop in more and more different formats and sizes. There are probably too many, now, for the optimum economic health of the industry, so we might see some rationalisation. USB Type-C is beginning to have a small impact, but there will be a lot of news on this side at CES, I suspect. Thunderbolt seems to be gathering some momentum.
In smartphones, flexibility has been the trend with Samsung doing so well with the Edge design. As we report in this issue, with the data from DSCC, supply will be the limit on this trend for the next few years.
Small pitch LED has been the big change in the LFD segment, but the high pricing has remained a challenge, and some of those that have jumped into the category have found that it is very different from the LCD market. Sony, of course, has really made an impact with the Cledis LEDs and as they start to roll out, the great performance will draw customers in. Apart from this, Micro-LED stayed ‘below the surface’ in 2016, but still has the potential to be disruptive.
Interactive displays have improved with better and better PCap performance in larger sizes and pricing that is getting closer to what is needed for the mainstream. The purchase of Smart by Foxconn shows that big touch displays are moving to the mainstream.
In projection, this has been the year of laser phosphor. We’ve also seen Epson come back into the rental segment, and that competition will drive developments in the professional end. LED hasn’t developed in the market as fast as it might have, but remains an interesting opportunity. In cinema, Ang Lee’s use of 120Hz blew me away, although his movie failed at the box office. UltraHD Blu-ray can deliver incredibly high quality content to the home. There are some interesting developments in projection mapping for retail and other public applications.
There have been some weeks when MDM has seemed like “VR/AR News”. Many of the technology industry’s ‘movers and shakers’ see AR, VR and mixed reality as ‘the next big thing’. We’re in the “trough of disillusionment” of the hype curve at the moment, but we’ll get there, eventually, I still believe. It’s going to take plenty of time, though.
Notebooks and convertibles pushed back against tablets again and the PC industry has started to innovate more with Microsoft’s Surface Studio and Dell’s Smart Desk offering better productivity for creative users.
The use of displays in automotive applications is really interesting, exciting and enables new ways of moving around. However, the real impact of electronic displays in the mainstream of automotive is still a couple of years away because of the design and qualification cycle of the industry. Still, there should be some interesting concepts at CES.
So I wish you a happy 2017 with good health and prosperity! I hope to see some of you at CES.
Bob
