Panel supply chains are increasing competition with one another in terms of pricing amid positive market outlooks for 2-in-1 notebook orders in 2014.
Orders for such units have increased since the release of the Asustek Computer Transformer Book T100 and are expected to continue increasing after announcements of new 2-in-1 units from various vendors at Computex 2014.
Upstream supply chains are optimistic about upcoming orders and believe they will help ease the losses incurred over the last couple of years due to a declining PC market, particularly for netbooks.
As new orders are expected to come in, touch panel makers have been adjusting pricing, which is also expected to help combat competiiton in the market.
However, sources within the supply chain said that notebook panel supply is still a concern due to makers shifting capacity away from notebook panel applications to tablet, smartphone and TV panels, which may slow down orders for new units.
Digitimes Research believes touch panel makers' shipments to the notebook segment will only grow 0.8% in the second quarter of 2014, with China makers and non Greater China-based makers' shipments expected to increase 23.8% and 17.1% respectively.
Article translated by Alex Wolfgram
