Future of Micro Displays Technology
Micro displays are small displays made of a CMOS chip that is widely used in a number of devices such as mobile phones, digital wrist watches, and virtual reality headsets among others, and have applications across various end user industries. Growing adoption of micro displays by enterprises operating across the consumer electronics domain, and military and defense industries is considered as one of the key factors boosting the growth of the market during the forecast period. However, high manufacturing costs associated with micro displays are anticipated to hinder the market growth opportunities in the coming years.
The Surge in Demand Due to Its Adoption in Medical Display
The outbreak of the current pandemic has unexpectedly increased the need for a large number of healthcare facilities for the treatment of patients globally. In fact, most of the countries around the globe are currently focusing on the expansion of healthcare facilities which is expected to increase the demand for embedded medical displays. Also, increasing investment in healthcare facilities in form of infrastructure expansions and growing use of micro-displays to monitoring the patient’s health and the condition is further anticipated to drive the growth of the microdisplays market in the coming years.
Technology Segment Insight
LCD is one of the widely used technology in microdisplays and is witnessing increasing demand in the last few years on account of advantages such that they can consume less power, provide high resolution, and can be operated at low voltage levels. In addition, OLED technology often called Organic Light-Emitting Diodes is one of the advance display technology which utilizes a flat light emitting produced by placing a series of thin films between the two conductors. This results in a thinner, more vibrant, and brighter display in comparison to other technologies. Additionally, since it individually illuminates every pixel, it can also shut them down individually, resulting in a more battery efficient performance. These benefits offed by OLED displays have enabled smartwatch and other wearable device manufacturers to offer additional functionality such as always-on displays, thus resulting in the rapid adoption of this technology. For example, in December 2019, Garmin, one of the leading players in the smartwatch industry, launched the Garmin Venu, the company’s first smartwatch with an AMOLED display. Furthermore, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies are also gaining significant traction in recent times, primarily due to the expanding media and entertainment and semiconductor industry, which is also anticipated to lead to an increased demand for AR and VR headsets. The increasing demand for a better quality of image output, with support for higher dynamic range (HDR), deeper contrast, and more, offered by OLED displays, is estimated to augment the demand for microdisplays in different headsets in the years to come.
End-User Market Insight
In recent years, the growing demand for hybrid electric vehicles has increased the demand for low-cost and reliable highly advance electronic components that can operate in with lower power consumption. Growing focus towards an efficient electronic system coupled with the increasing investments by major automotive players for the development of driverless cars and Advanced driver-assistance Systems (ADAS) is expected to drive the growth of the market. However, sluggish growth of the automotive industry and a sharp downturn in production and sales from 2018 because of a slump in demand in the world’s biggest producer and consumer China is expected to restrain the growth of the market in short term.
Furthermore, the current COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the industry from initial supply and manufacturing disruptions to demand shock in terms of job losses and global shutdown with the uncertainty of the recovery timeline. Also, focusing on China which is the major manufacturer of vehicle parts, due to nationwide lockdown and legal and trade restrictions such as closed borders there is an increased shortage of required parts resulting in limited supplies. Besides, the overall impact of global production shutdowns and collapsing demand from the automotive industry coupled with the challenges with components supply are expected to have a major economic impact in the short and medium run for microdisplays market. And the recovery of the automotive industry supply chain will take time depending on various factors such as regulation, infrastructure, and availability of workforce, the trend towards decreasing overdependency on pone country will become a prominent issue and one of the major learning from the crises for OEMs would be enforcing dual sourcing strategies and flexibility of production from one plant to another. Such upcoming strategies are anticipated to boost the growth of the market exponentially from 2021 onwards.
Source: The World Bank
Geographical
By geography, The Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at an exponential rate owing to the rapidly expanding automotive and consumer electronics sector in the developing economies like China and India. North American region is projected to hold a significant share in the market due to its early adoption of technology and the growing number of product launches in the United States. Besides, the European region is also anticipated to hold a noticeable share and is expected to show good growth in the coming years with expanding the healthcare industry coupled with rising investment in research and development by major market players such as MicroVision in the region.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rajat Sudan is a Market Research Analyst at Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence, working on estimates and global/regional specific reports on multiple industries ranging from healthcare to automotive, with a special knack for semiconductor. With the addition of his formal education in Economics, Commerce, and Finance, he is able to provide more light on the macro aspects of the story. To read more articles by him, and for more information regarding multiple global markets, visit www.knowledge-sourcing.com.
