LCD panel makers in Taiwan and China are optimizing either production capacity or innovative technologies to enhance their presence in the IT segment, where demand for gaming monitor and notebook applications has been robust thanks to COVID-19-induced stay-at-home activities, according to industry sources.

According to Sigmaintell Consulting, global panel shipments for gaming monitor applications are likely to reach 23.8 million units in 2021, up from 19 million units shipped a year earlier. It has also forecast global gaming monitor shipments to come to 20 million units in 2021.

Panel demand from the gaming monitor segment is likely to gain momentum in 2022, as the current tight supply of graphics cards is expected to ease in the coming year, spurring replacement in the end market, said the sources.

By 2023, the sources forecast that global panel shipments for gaming monitor applications are likely to reach 34 million units and those of gaming monitors to ramp up to 30 million units.

Chinese panel makers, including BOE Technology, China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) and Chongqing HKC, have been the most active venturing into the gaming monitor segment, said the sources, adding that Chinese makers have taken up a 60% share of the global gaming panel market.

Taiwanese panel makers are also thrusting into the gaming panel market by optimizing innovative technologies, such as adopting miniLED-backlit modules to improve dynamic contrast and using LTPS or IGZO backplanes to upgrade display resolutions.

AU Optronics (AUO) has been fast to made production adjustments and has shifted 70% of the capacity of its 6G lines to produce LTPS panels for IT applications.

By DIGITIMES