Taiwanese startups can no longer involve in "me-too" or "me-better" businesses, but must plan ahead and develop "me-only" technologies. The reasons are because the scales of Taiwanese venture capital (VC) and local market are limited, and does not have an advantage in demographic dividend. Mr. Michael Kao, President of Taiwan ITRI New Venture Association (TINVA) said that environmental, social, and governance (ESG), pharmaceuticals, smart manufacturing, and the semiconductor industries are some of the cutting-edge technologies that Taiwan should plan ahead and invest in. Given Taiwan's complete information and communications technology (ICT) industry chain, there is a good chance that Taiwan can gear to become a key hub for innovations and startups for the Asia Pacific region.

Samsung Display (SDC) and LG Display (LGD) will ramp up their OLED panel output in 2023 to fend off competition from Chinese rivals, according to sources at the TV supply chain makers.

Taiwan-based e-paper solutions provider E Ink Holdings (EIH) and its associated company Netronix are establishing partnerships with Taiwan-based Readmoo, enabling the Chinese e-book maker to launch its first colored e-book in traditional Chinese recently.

AUO Display Plus (ADP), an AUO subsidiary specializing in industrial and commercial display solutions, has reported a 20% revenue increase to a range of NT$30-40 billion (US$990-1,320 million) in 2022, expecting to post over 20% revenue growth in 2023.

There were 101 million TVs shipped globally by ODMs in 2022, increasing 3.4% on year, according to China-based Beijing Runto Technology.

Before microLED technology becomes mature for commercial use, miniLED-backlit LCD panels will compete with OLED panels for application to high-end automotive displays.

Samsung Electronics will launch microLED TVs of seven sizes in 2023, according to industry sources.

Backlit unit (BLU) suppliers Coretronic and Radian Opto-Electronics have reported flat sales performance for 2022. Coretronics ended the year with its revenue ebbing 0.1% from a year earlier, while Radiant Opto-Electronics posted a 3.1% growth.

Car display shipments during 2022 are forecast to remain short of 200 million sheets. Notably, center control display (CCD) shipments are expected to decrease to 95.3 million sheets for 2022, according to forecasts made by DIGITIMES Research.

Keyboard and CCM (compact camera module) maker Chicony Electronics has reported consolidated revenues of NT$115.748 billion (US$3.89 billion) for 2022, the historically high annual level and increasing 7.70% on year, according to the company.

Most TV brands remain conservative about their outlook for 2023, expecting sales in North America and Southeast Asia likely to rise despite market uncertainty.

Demand for large-size outdoor LED fine-pitch displays in the China market has nosedived due to impact of COVID control measures and should reach bottom levels by January 2023, according to Taiwan-based LED driver IC design house Macroblock.

Suppliers of miniLED backlighting may take a hit if Apple adopts OLED screens for its iPad Pro, but they are turning their focus to automotive applications, according to industry sources.

Online TV sales during the Double 12 (December 12) shopping festival in China were lower than expected despite easing COVID restrictive measures. Double 12 is a sales day cut from the same cloth as Singles' Day (November 11) in China or Black Friday in the West.

LCD panel maker AUO has disclosed it has cooperated with VFX (visual effects) specialist Renovatio Pictures to set up an LED virtual studio at Central Motion Picture's film studio in Taipei to provide integrated services consisting of shooting scenes and stages, content production, technical counseling and rental equipment.

The global supply chain makers for electronic shelf labels (ESL) have suffered high inventory levels, however, global demand for ESL has been in a mid- to long-term trend of stable growth mainly because electronic paper is a low power-consuming product in line with efforts to move toward net zero carbon emission and attain ESG (environmental, social, governance) goals.

In 2023, the global LCD market will likely continue to decline due to slow inventory clearance. The market scale will likely return to the pre-pandemic (2019) figures of 129 million units. However, the gaming, portable, and touchscreen display sectors could go against the headwind and see growth, according to Oscar Lin, GM of the monitor business unit at ViewSonic.

Amtran Technology expects its combined shipments of TVs and monitors to decline 20% annually to 3.6 million units in 2022, as unfavorable macro conditions have weakened end-market demand.

Samsung Electronics continues to hold the top spot in the global TV market in terms of unit sales, while LG Electronics and China-based Hisense and TCL strive for second place, according to market sources.

Taiwan-based display driver IC suppliers including Novatek Microelectronics, Himax Technologies and Raydium Semiconductor are actively expanding their OLED DDI offerings, all eyeing robust demand for mid- and large-size device applications.

JET Optoelectronics, one of the top-three makers of rear seat entertainment systems worldwide, is building a new production site in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, aiming at boosting its annual revenue to over NT$10 billion (US$330 million) in three years from NT$3 billion currently.

Global OLED Technology (GOT), LG Display's (LGD) subsidiary that owns and licenses OLED technology patents, sent warning to China-based panel maker BOE Technology against infringing on such patents in the first half of 2022, according to South Korea-based media The Elec.

EMS provider Lite-On Technology has reported consolidated revenues of NT$14.845 billion (US$484 million) for November, decreasing 0.34% sequentially and 0.49% on year.

The quality of optical systems has a high influence on users' immersion experience when using VR, AR, or MR. With the birth of Micro LED-based micro-displays in 2022 and the popularity of optical waveguide technologies among optical combiner developers, the combination of the two technologies is expected to become the mainstream specification for AR head-mounted devices (HMDs), according to DIGITIMES Research's latest study.

While demand for TV- and IT-use miniLED-backlit TFT-LCD panels has significantly shrunk in 2022, demand for miniLED-backlit LTPS (low-temperature polysilicon) TFT-LCD panels used in automotive displays has begun to increase and such panels are expected to come into large-volume production in 2023, according to industry sources.