SID 2007 – “See You Next Year”

May 29th, 2007

By Dale Maunu, Vice President
The exhibition portion of SID 2007 saw very few ‘customers’ on the last day; it was mostly the exhibitors talking to one another. It is also a time when people are a little more open; they are tired from the week’s activities, their bosses have already left, and there are no customers hanging around. I was most frequently asked by the display makers if the recent price increases would be sustainable for the rest of the year? Is 2008 going to be a good year for them? More than they wanted my opinion, they wanted to know what the other display makers were saying. My answer to all of them was the same: I hope so. The display makers really need to have a sustained period of not-losing-money to regain their health.

Of course the folks buying displays are not so excited by this prospect. Everyone wants a healthy display supply chain, but no one wants to pay for it.

The next most common question was related to small/medium displays: Isn’t there a tremendous over-supply of small displays? Why would their prices be going up? I asked the display makers at the show what they think will happen; the term “guardedly optimistic” seems to apply the best. They said that they are seeing demand for larger displays, with 2.2” and 2.4” becoming quite popular, and they are not increasing the capacity for small/medium, so they feel that utilization is going up and over-supply is coming down. I heard from more than one vendor that small/medium prices have been going up for the last two months. I felt that everyone was looking for affirmation, but I pointed out that we are in the process of compiling the Q1’07 data, and I wouldn’t be able to comment officially for a couple of weeks. I am excited to see if the data bears out the on the show floor.

Finally, the most commonly heard phrase of the show (not question) was undoubtedly “See you next year.” I truly hope that the display industry will enjoy a year of not-losing-money, so that we have a good chance of seeing everyone again next year.

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