LG Display joins race for e-paper market
By Robin Kwong in Taipei and Song Jung-a in Seoul 2009-12-29

LG Display joins race for e-paper market

LG Display, the world's second biggest flat-screen maker, has joined the rush among Asian manufacturers to make e-paper displays – the flat screens used in the fast-growing electronic reader market.

The South Korean company yesterday signed deals with two subsidiaries of Taiwan's Prime View International, which supplies the key display component for electronic readers such as Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader. E Ink, which is based in Massachusetts, will supply e-paper to LG Display, while flat-panel maker Hydis Technology will work with the South Korean company to develop future e-paper display modules.

The two sides will purchase products from each other and LG Display will also buy $30.5m of bonds issued by Hydis as part of the agreement. LG Display has this month invested $10m for a 0.5 per cent stake in PVI.

The deal gives LG Display the technology to make e-paper displays, which differ from LCD screens in that they do not have an internal light source.

This will allow further expansion of global manufacturing capacity for e-paper displays and increase the potential for future price cuts for e-readers should demand fail to live up to rising expectations.

LG Display's entrance also breaks Taiwan's dominance of e-paper display manufacturing. Taiwan's AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics, the world's third- and fourth-biggest flat-panel makers respectively, are both already mass-producing e-paper displays.

Chi Mei last month announced a similar partnership with PVI, and AU Optronics earlier took a 31.6 per cent stake in SiPix Imaging, which uses a rival technology to E Ink to produce e-paper.