Mr. Smith: At the moment we have five flat panel display companies under coverage, including two equipment providers, two systems integrators, and one TFT-LCD panel manufacturer. The two equipment providers are Applied Films (AFCO) and Photon Dynamics (PHTN). The systems integrators are Planar Systems (PLNR) and Three-Five Systems (TFS). Lastly, we recently picked up coverage of AU Optronics (AUO), which is a Taiwanese merchant supplier of TFT-LCD panel.
TWST: What are system integrators?
Mr. Smith: System integrators in an FPD context take a standard
flat panel from a supplier such as AU Optronics, and then add
value around that display to make it suitable for certain
applications. For instance, these days you are seeing a lot of
flat panel displays popping up in elevators in office buildings.
You wouldn't have seen that 10 years ago or even five years ago.
What Planar Systems does is take a standard panel product and
then customize that panel for use in the elevator environment,
where for instance there is lots of vibration that can affect the
performance of the display and there is a need for enhanced
viewing capability so anyone standing in the elevator can see the
display properly from any angle. Other examples might be medical
applications, where the display has to be seen by a large number
of people inside an operating theater from lots of different
angles. Also, the panel has to be modified for hospital grade
detergent and use industrial grade cable. So systems integrators
are those who take the standard product and add proprietary value
to it for particular niche applications.
Tickers included in this excerpt: AFCO, AUO, PHTN, PLNR, TFS
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