The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Monitor Vertical Integration Fence
November 10th, 2008By Chris Connery with Shawn Lee
When looking at the LCD DESKTOP monitor market, the question of vertical integration has long been debated in the industry in regards to whether it is important for factories to have their own brands and vice-versa (for strong bands to be supported by a panel producing factory). Of the top five world-wide brands, only two are supported by their own production, Samsung and LGE. PC heavyweights such as Dell, HP and Lenovo (as well as most of the brands in the market) rely on merchant buying of panels. Throughout my 17+ years in the industry, I have heard arguments from both sides of the aisle. When brands do not have an LCD panel factory behind them, they feel that they are always getting the short end of the stick. When a brand has strong factory support, then they fell that their roadmaps are driven by R&D and not end-market demand.
As a case in point, one might look to a smaller player in the world-wide FPD marketplace, Hannspree. Hannspree is well-known as a brand for novelty TVs with previous tie-ins to the likes of the NBA for ultra-unique industrial designs. Hannspree actually has three different brands for desktop monitors including the Hannspree brand, the HannsG brand and the i-Inc brand. Hannspree monitor products can now quite visibly be seen in US retail outlets such as Best Buy. Hanspree in fact boasts of one of the largest LCD monitors available in US retail (outside of the various 30” displays) and now the largest 28” FHD LCD HDTV with the introduction of its HT09.
Figure 1 Hannspree’s 28” FHD LCD TV
However, the history of the brand stretches far beyond its (now fading) public image of marquee show floors in San Francisco and Beverly Hills (as well as Taipei, Singapore, Luxembourg, etc.) back to its roots with Taiwan LCD panel producer HannStar.
Figure 2 Hannspree Retail Store Experience (with a facelift currently underway)
As of this writing, HannStar is the world’s sixth largest producer of large-area LCD panels (mostly used for desktop computer monitors) with ownership of HannStar and Hannspree being shared by the same chairman. So, essentially, HannStar and Hannspree are joined at the hip, permitting this vertical integration. However, it is also quick to point out that it also sources panels from other manufacturers to help fill gaps in their product line.
With the backing of a Gen 5 Fab line (with a Gen 8.5 still on the horizon for 2010 but uncertain in this weakened economy), the company plans to continue to expand beyond its line of desktop monitors and TVs in other markets that can leverage their LCD panel (and even LCD module assembly) power into other areas such as digital picture frames, all-in-one PCs, mini-note PCs and an even more diverse array of LCD TVs that is more mainstream than their current offering of novelty TVs.
Companies like this raise questions. If this still-emerging brand did not have the backing of a panel company, could it still survive? When does a brand’s identity become established so that consumers disassociate the brand from its core technology—specifically in an area like the desktop monitor market, which can arguably be considered one of the more commoditized applications using LCD technology?
One Response to “The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Monitor Vertical Integration Fence”
By Noam Cohen on Nov 11, 2008 | Reply
Dear Chris,
Most interesting commentary - as someone whose job it is to forecast customers roadmaps, I’d like to hear more about your observation that integrated brands suffer from having their roadmap driven more by R&D rather than market demand. Can you point out to cases, where an LCD maker heeded it’s own R&D, in the face of different market demand, to the detriment of it’s brand? Where do the two conflict?
All the best,
Noam