Limited panel supply is contributing to an already slow...

Limited panel supply is contributing to an already slow start for ultra-slim PCs, said a report from NPD DisplaySearch. “The high-end specifications for touch on Windows 8 PCs, and the unproven consumer demand for touch on notebooks has touch screen suppliers leery of shifting capacity from the high-volume smartphone and tablet PC markets to notebook PCs,” said Richard Shim, senior analyst. NPD categorizes ultra-slim PCs as 21mm thick or less in 14-inch and larger sizes and 18mm or thinner in smaller notebooks. Contributing to the supply shortage are production challenges associated with ultra-thin panels, defined as 0.4mm and under, Shim said. Manufacturing panels that thin is difficult and handling and transporting the glass requires special equipment that only AUO and Innolux have been willing to commit to for large-volume production, he said. LG Display is exploring an alternative means to ultra-thin design using its Shuriken self-refreshing panel that requires a change in notebook design “to make the lid slimmer,” Shim told us. That approach requires coordination across the assembly process, limiting the number of suppliers in the chain and making a manufacturer more reliant on fewer suppliers, Shim said. The ultra-slim PC market is expected to reach 44.2 million unit shipments worldwide in 2013, comprising 21.4 percent of the notebook PC market, he said. Although touch capability is being billed as a premium feature for notebooks, consumers don’t perceive it as such, Shim said, because they're accustomed to the feature as standard on smartphones and tablets and don’t expect to pay extra for it. Touch screen penetration in notebooks is expected to reach 13.1 percent this year, or 27.2 million units, he said. Those numbers will gradually rise to 57 percent, or 106.6 million units, by 2017, according to data. The ultra-slim PC category is projected to grow steadily between 2014 and 2015, and eventually establish a standardized high-end notebook PC market, it said. Ultra-slim PCs are not expected to significantly boost PC shipment growth overall but will create a new norm for the high-end of the market, which could help drive volumes, lower costs and make premium notebooks accessible to a broader segment of the market, DisplaySearch said.