LG Electronics President Talks About Future Trends in Information Displays

Aug 30, 2007 16:04 Naoki Tanaka, Nikkei Microdevices

What will digital TVs, mobile devices and their displays look like in the future? Regarding technical trends of information displays, Korea's LG Electronics Inc. President and Chief Technology Officer Hee-Gook Lee indicated his views in a keynote speech at the 7th International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2007).

"Consumers expect new visual experiences"

"Requirements for TVs and mobile devices are changing, and consumers expect new visual experiences," Lee said.

This is the foundation of future trends Lee sees ahead of displays. Based on this, Lee indicated future trends of digital TVs, mobile devices and new display technologies.

As for digital TVs, he predicted demand for screens 40-inches and larger will continue to strengthen. When it comes to high resolution, consumers prefer HD (high definition) content to SD (standard definition) content and will further seek full HD content, Lee said.

In addition, manufacturers will have to keep on striving to satisfy consumers more, because they will be more conscious of image quality and design, he said.

In the mobile devices segment, "fusion" will advance to integrate diverse capabilities into a single device as communication bands broaden, resulting in more complicated devices and even higher levels of requirements toward displays, Lee said. Manufacturers need to search for new display candidates, while continuing to fortify current devices' performance, he added.

Focus on ultra small projectors, flexible displays and 3D displays

In the area of new display technologies, a variety of devices will compete against one another, Lee said. He cited mobile projectors, flexible displays and 3D displays as candidates of such technologies.

The market for mobile projectors, which use LEDs and lasers for the light source, may be established quickly once mobile phones integrate projectors in 2010, he said.

Meanwhile, flexible displays have a great potential for application to electronic books, making the most of their visibility and flexibility as paper, to low-end mobile phones because they hardly crack or break and can be manufactured at low cost using roll-to-roll processing, and to high-end multimedia equipment based on their freedom in design and superior capabilities, which existing devices do not support, Lee said.

Lee indicated that 3D displays have various potential applications in the entertainment and game fields. He, however, stressed that, despite the great potential of these technologies, technical breakthrough and killer applications will be still needed.

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