Lock the MP3 market small size panel will ride

According to the latest market forecast MP3 player control chip maker Sigmatel, 2004 Flash MP3 products benefit from the second quarter Flash fell 25 million sets of sales quotation, but by early estimates, substantial growth to 3500-4000 million units in 2005 may reach more than 50 million. This wave of demand for heat affected industry that small and medium size panel market will also sights on this ride in the next ride. The industry believes that, relative to the market saturation of mobile phones and digital cameras, in 2005 the growth rate of more than 30% of the MP3 market, the industry is bound to focus on small and medium-sized panel locking. In the face of this wave of MP3 can be predicted and demand the vast market demand, how to develop the Xinjiang earth ride aboard the MP3, will be key to the future development of small and medium size panel industry.

The trend of MP3 player panel has a simple turn cool, so the panel will also benefit from the monochrome STN LCD panel evolution to 7 color backlight colorful backlight design and even OLED panel, expected future market will be more equivalent to the mobile phone main panel grade 260 thousand color high order LTPS TFT LCD panel.

Experts believe that the future of the cost of the low order MP3 player panel will become the key to grab the market. In the 256M storage capacity analysis of MP3 player Flash Memory cost, the price is around $16, Decoder IC price of about $10, Audio IC price of about $5-6, plus the headset, USB control IC and other components cost and manufacturer operating cost considerations, the panel may have cost the space will be compressed seriously. After winning the key factor in the cost of the market, the industry expects, STN LCD by virtue of the cost advantage, still in 2005 to maintain low order MP3 panel market.

As for the high order MP3 player panel market, due to the common point of high order MP3 products is the use of the OLED panel, so the future full-color OLED panel will with colorful backlight design of high resolution TFT LCD jointly snatch high order MP3 player panel market. It is expected that in the high-end MP3 player panel market, OLED panel and TFT LCD competition will be more intense than the middle and lower face spot market.

Overall, due to the decline in demand for mobile phone and digital camera, small and medium-sized panels in these two areas will lose part of shipments, but because demand is still in the field of MP3 increase, the industry more optimistic about next year, small and medium size panel boom growth.