An ultra-slim TV, a flexible e-book and a 52-inch multi-touch screen were among the new technologies displayed at FPD China 2008, a flat panel display show that closed in Shanghai yesterday.
Most of the items on show are not yet affordable or even available for consumers but the exhibition indicated that the participating firms were determined to produce new types of display, ranging from two inches to 100 inches.
For the firms taking part in the show, including Samsung, LG, SVA, BOE and Tianma, the Chinese market is too attractive to resist. Demand has been fueled by the Beijing Olympic Games and the fact that there are millions of affluent consumers.
This year, 14.8 million LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs are expected to be sold in China, accounting for 15 percent of the global level, according to Displaybank, a South Korean-based research firm.
SVA Group said during the show it may build a 7.5 generation LCD panel production line in Shanghai, in a bid to help the country's No. 2 LCD panel maker catch-up with the foreign giants.
Meanwhile, Philips LCD vice general manager and sales director Jeffrey Kim said his company expected its revenue in China to grow 30 percent this year.
LG Display debuted its 12-inch black-and-white and 14.3-inch color flexible display products at the show.
Due to be batch produced later this year, the e-paper display uses an ultra-thin steel foil on a plastic substrate, instead of traditional glass, which makes it flexible.
LG Display is in talks with a United States-based firm to put the 14.3-inch display into an electronic book reader, according to a staff at the company's booth.
"It features good reading ability with a wide viewing angle and low power consumption," a staff member at the LG booth said.
"People can read it, even in direct sunshine."
LG Display also launched a 52-inch, 19.8mm-thick multi-touch panel which functions like an iPhone, allowing users to select, move from side to side and zoom in and out on the screen.
