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Display industry turning to Other players are setting up plants to to
high-margin products: Yole either meet early demand (PlayNitride for
Samsung TVs), accelerate innovation cy-
LYON, France — In the “more than cles (Aledia), or bet on their ability to cre-
$100-billion” FPD market, China won ate innovative, high added-value displays
the LCD war, and the race to dominate (Stratacache).
capacity and volume is essentially Apple’s supply chain
over, the Yole Group says. Most signifi cantly, Apple is looking to have
its own supply chain with its partners, and
MiniLED and MicroLED we still expect an initial ramp up to come
The display industry is now turning its fo- by late 2023 at the earliest.
cus to technologies that could deliver dif-
ferentiation and high margins like miniLED Startups are trying to monetize their tech-
and MicroLED. nologies through licensing, or by selling
microdisplays (JBD, Lumens), chip-on-a-
Meanwhile, between attrition and a CO- carrier, chiplets (PlayNitride, LC Square,
VID-driven boost in demand, the panel Ultra Displays, X Display, Saphlux, Vue-
industry has swung back into profi tability Real.)
since mid-2020 and is generating cash to
fund the development of those new tech- Fabless ecosystem
nologies. X Display is off ering a transfer tool and
setting up a (mostly) fabless ecosystem
The LCD display business model needs around its display architecture (µdriver
high-volume commodity products to ab- and TFT) to allow its licensees to purchase
sorb huge manufacturing costs. This al- all key components and services. VueReal
lows manufacturers to make money on is also licensing and setting up manufac-
premium products. turing for low volumes of custom displays.
yolegroup.com
Serving premium markets
By contrast, microLED displays could stem Marketing budgets rose in 2022
CAPEX-light operations focused on serving
premium markets exclusively. Marketing budgets have climbed to
9.5% of total company revenue in
The level of eff ort and number of partici- 2022, an increase from 6.4% in 2021,
pants keeps increasing and new compa- according to Gartner, Inc. While mar-
nies are emerging regularly. Pretty much keting budgets are increasing this
all display manufacturers now have sizable year, they still lag pre-pandemic
microLED eff orts, with cumulated invest- spending levels.
ments now reaching into multi-billion dol-
lar fi gures. The annual Gartner 2022 CMO Spend
and Strategy Survey was conducted
MicroLED technology has also improved between February through March
in key areas, such as effi ciency and beam 2022 among 405 CMOs and other
shaping. Samsung and Vuzix (with JB Dis- marketing leaders in North America,
play) have introduced the fi rst commercial as well as Northern and Western Eu-
microLED products in 2021. rope across diff erent industries, com-
pany sizes and revenue. gartner.com
