Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba join forces to create the world's largest mobile display maker

The Japanese government will front a Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba mobile display joint-venture to the tune of $2.6 billion via its special fund. The project, which is expected to be complete in 2012, will create the world's largest mobile display maker.

Taken together, the market share of the three companies in small and medium size displays, like the ones used in phones and tablets, represents 21.5%, more than Sharp's 14.8%, or Samsung's 11.9%.

Many screen innovations have come out of the trio like Hitachi creating the IPS-LCD display, for example, Toshiba's HD LCD screen and flexible OLED display, or Sony's recent WhiteMagic technology, so we could be in for more pleasant surprises as consumers when their R&D departments start sharing knowledge and projects.

Both Samsung and LG, on the other hand, are scaling back on large screens, like those for TVs, and shifting focus to the booming mobile display market, while Sharp's displays are being green-lit by Apple, so the more competition, the merrier for us spoiled users.

What warms out hearts further is the joint statement by the companies that their venture will focus on developing next generation displays, including thin organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens of high resolution.

Hopefully their work will inject some healthy dose of competition in this market, where Samsung is a few laps ahead of everyone else with its upcoming Super AMOLED HD mobile displays.

source: Reuters