触控面板IC需求呈下降趋势
<p class="P1">Despite that touch panels are still believed to post buoyant demand in 2008, demand for related components has slowed down recently, prompting industry players to believe that meaningful touch panel demand will only take off from the second quarter.</p><p class="P2">Citing comments from LCD module (LCM) makers, sources at Taiwan IC design houses indicated that demand for touch panels from Europe and the US seems to be slowing. Given that touch panels are often applied in high-end applications, weaker than expected demand in the near term, discourages customer incentive for procurement, they explained.</p><p class="P1">Elan Microelectronics, though having projected sales in the first quarter of 2008 will enjoy sequential growth, currently expects it will be difficult to see corresponding controller shipments surpass 100,000 units per month, according to company sources. However, the sources did not associate the shipments trend to weak demand, but instead yields at glass and LCM makers. They added in saying that these companies may require several months before shipments pick up in volume, which is possibly in the second quarter.</p><p class="P2">As most of their customers are white-box handset makers in China, Himark Technology and Weltrend Semiconductor both observe that their customers are undergoing inventory correction, prompting them to turn conservative about corresponding analog-to-digital converter shipments, according to sources at these companies.</p><p class="P1">Since some design-in and design-win projects are being put on hold by customers, the sources at Himark and Weltrend said the companies only expected development for new projects to re-start after the Lunar New Year in early February, meaning shipments will only pick up from then.</p>