Japan Display Inc. is exploring the idea of mass producing next-generation organic electroluminescent panels for smartphones at a domestic plant, the CEO of a China-Hong Kong consortium bailing out the troubled Apple Inc. supplier says.
Winston Lee, CEO of Suwa Investment Holdings LLC, said making the OLED panels at JDI's Hakusan plant in Ishikawa Prefecture will allow the product to hit the market within 2½ years.
"To build a full OLED production plant in China will take three to four years before the product comes off the line. To build in Hakusan, it may take only 2 to 2½. The cost at Hakusan would be half or less," Lee said in a recent interview in Tokyo.