PCB News - PCB industry has matured, wearable has become the biggest business opportunity

PCB industry has matured, wearable has become the biggest business opportunity

As Apple's smart watch Apple Watch is about to go on sale, PCB manufacturers are expected to expand the application of wearable devices in an all-round way and inject new water into the operation of the PCB supply chain. Recently, global PCB companies have accelerated their technological R&D and production capacity equipment capabilities. Fully prepare for the new wave of wearable devices and other IoT business opportunities.

The PCB industry said that the PCB industry is quite mature. Products include rigid boards (R-PCB), high-density interconnect boards (HDI), flexible boards (FPC) and IC substrates. In the past, they were widely used in PCs, tablets, mobile phones and various However, in recent years, the growth momentum of consumer products such as PCs and mobile devices has not been strong, and low-price competition has quickly entered into low-cost competition, affecting the development of the upstream PCB supply chain, making it difficult to see significant growth in PCB output value.

PCB industry players pointed out that in recent years, although many major manufacturers have comprehensively developed IoT-related applications such as smart wearable devices, the market demand has not yet detonated, including Google glass spawned by Google, and smart smart devices launched by manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics. Devices such as bracelets and smart watches have failed to drive the overall market to take off. However, with the appearance of Apple Watch, it is expected to bring an opportunity for wearable device applications to take off. The industry expects that the development of smart wearable devices will become more mature, and will bring a new wave of order opportunities for PCB industry, especially the demand for flexible board products with characteristics such as flexibility, easy turning, and light weight will emerge, and the growth will be stagnant. The long-term PCB industry brings new growth momentum.

The PCB industry believes that the rise in demand for FPCs can be expected. Taiwanese FPC manufacturers Zhending, Taijun and Jialianyi are listed in Apple's supply chain, and their future operations will be stable. However, the main competitor, NOK, is strong. The annual output value scale ranks first in the world. It, Sumitomo Electric and American Mflex are both major Apple supply chain companies. Taiwanese manufacturers must accelerate the development of high-end technologies to have a chance to stabilize Apple's orders and win other major brands. Place an order. Recently, Taiwan-based PCB companies, including Zhending, Huatong, Yaohua, Jinxiang Electronics, Tripod, HannStar, etc., have decided to expand their production capacity or precision schedules in response to customer needs. Capital expenditures in 2015 rose sharply. In addition, in order to seize orders for the Internet of Things and smart wearable devices, Korean factory Daedeok Electronics has also decided to build a dedicated production line suitable for a variety of small-scale production. Japanese and mainland PCB manufacturers are also actively planning to expand their production capacity.