Omdia: Bar-type displays used in innovative applications expected to reach growth of 153% YoY in 2024

LONDON, August 21, 2023 – New research from Omdia's Industrial and Public Display & OEM Intelligence Service has found bar-type display shipments is on track to reach 359.5 thousand units in 2023 representing an increase of 62% year-over-year (YoY). This number is expected to grow to 153% and 47% in 2024 and 2025, respectively, following a wider adoption of bar-type displays in new applications from 1H23.

Bar-type displays currently available in the market range from 19-inch to 58.6-inch for the main screen. This has been a result of the demand requiring display with special aspect ratio due to issues of limited space. Bar-type displays can be found in restaurants, public transportation, shopping centers, supermarkets, gaming products, and railways.

Figure 1: Bar-type display shipment and forecast, thousands of units, 2020–25 (F)

© 2023 Omdia

There are three different methods to produce bar-type displays: the first one is to cut TFT-LCD directly by using liquid crystal freezing method; the second is to develop new photomask for bar-type display; and the third is to use native photomask and adopt metal shielding for manufacturing processes. Sub displays are commonly used for mobile phone and notebook markets. Recently, they have been adopted into 48.5-inch (48 by 9 aspect ratio) TV application and mainly used in TV advertisements. 

According to Omdia’s estimation, 48.5-inch is the equivalent of one-third cut display of a 55-inch panel. One piece of a 48.5-inch 3840x720 open cell could generate an additional 27% to 200% revenue compared with that from the 55-inch TV open cell. The bar-type display open cell cost is higher than TV open cell as panel makers need to consider polarizer difference, utilization rate, additional array process, production line change loss and equipment limitation. Panel makers must study and develop the feasibility of mass-producing two pieces of the 48.5-inch open cells simultaneously by using TV-sized native photomask to achieve a more competitive price and generate higher revenue. For outdoor requirements, bar-type open cells  adopt a high Tni (high nematic/isotropic phase transition) solution which can contribute 2.3 times revenue compared with TV open cell for panel makers.

Tzu-Yu Huang, Omdia Principal Analyst commented: “As more and more innovative products are adopting industrial displays and public displays, it’s traditional TV display equipped with a bar-type display for advertising that has the potential to add more display value. From the panel makers’ point of view, developing new photomask and using TV-sized native photomask for bar-type display production could offer better product reliability. Using TV-sized native photomask could also save NRE (non-recurring engineering) expense and offer competitive prices if one TV-sized panel could produce more than two bar-type displays simultaneously.”