It was clear this week that things were already slowing down towards the holiday period and we have some shorter issues this week. Usually, CES is coming up just after the New Year festivities, but this year there is a one week gap. So, we’re taking a publishing break and this will be our last issue of the pdfs until the 5th of January. However, we will still be publishing online. If you don’t have online access, your company may have spare ‘seat’ licences to allow online access, check with [email protected] if you would like to get online access.
As we have the January 5th issue to look forward to CES and the New Year, I’ll use this editorial to look back. 2017 was not a bad year, economically, although politics remains turbulent around the globe. This morning, we got news that the Catalans have voted broadly in favour of independence, so that topic will be a hot one in 2018. In the US, the country remains deeply divided around the Trump presidency and in the UK, I can’t remember a weaker Prime Minister in my life time and I daren’t get started about the mess that is Brexit. Germany is having as much luck with ‘strong and stable government’ as Theresa May has. France seems, relatively settled, and economic issues have dropped off the front pages for Greece, at least for now.
Turkey continues to move away from a pluralist and Westernised approach, while Saudi Arabia may be moving more in that direction. The Middle East remains a mess and the Trump decision in Jerusalem really doesn’t look as though it will help. Some think that oil prices may stabilise around $60 to $80. China continues to develop although there is plenty of concern over North Korea.
On the other hand, the display industry has been pretty good, with tight supply and firm prices as well. OLED has been on the rise, but supply is going to be the challenge over the next few years. Investment in display making has been very positive which has been good for equipment makers. Foxconn said that it would build a fab in the US, although it has said things like that before and they haven’t happened, so we’ll see if it actually goes ahead.
As widely expected, Apple has gone to OLED in its smartphones and that has solidified the future for smartphones with that technology.
LG Display has had a triumphant year with its OLED TVs. Sony also had a good year in TV and Foxconn has pushed Sharp to a much bigger share. However, Samsung didn’t get to be the technology colossus that it is by conceding and it has a lot of great engineers and product designers. We expect the company to come back fighting with quantum dots a significant technology. Just a couple of weeks ago we had news of a new architecture for QD TVs. The first 8K TVs were announced.
In IT, the notebook and monitor markets have been mostly unexciting, but business has not been too bad. HP and Dell are both developing positively since Dell’s buyback and HP’s split. Lenovo looks as though it is going to take displays more seriously and the game market has seen lots of excitement, although a big market for gaming monitors in internet cafes went away in China. The recent announcement by VESA of HDR labels may finally get HDR going in the PC world. Better late than never! Eizo and others have shown LCDs that look better than OLEDs for professional applications – the first time we have seen that and JOLED has started shipping inkjet printed OLED panels for medical monitors.
Tablets have carried on with little excitement and wearables have struggled. Smartwatches seem to be settling to be a steady market. VR and AR are in the ‘trough of disillusionment’ and I think they may be there for a while. That’s going to mean even more of a shakeout in the future.
Automotive displays continue to grow in function and importance, but the long product cycles and conservative planning of the car makers, as well as the severe cost pressures makes the market a tough one. Nevertheless, there has been a lot of development this year and we expect to see a lot of interesting applications in Las Vegas.
Professional AV continues to be a great place to see creative display applications and projection mapping and LED display have both moved on a lot. We were surprised by the Samsung LED cinema, but impressed and the shock waves from that development are going to ripple for several years through that industry. Small Pitch LED continues to eat into LCD video wall, but remains challenged by the economics and the tricky technology in moving to chip on board technology. Barco, on the other hand, showed that good engineering still has a place in professional displays – it’s not just about the panel.
In projection, laser phosphor continues to evolve, but lamps remain stubbornly popular because of the pricing – I can hardly get my head around the fantastic value that buyers get these days in the projection market. It has long been a problem that projection lagged in resolution, but TI has helped UltraHD to get to competitive pricing. Epson has had to react – as in TV, the consumer is the real winner.
Anyway, it has been an eventful year with lots of fascinating developments. I wish you good health and prosperity for the new year!
Bob
