“Panel suppliers are concentrating on producing larger panels at higher glass efficiencies, in order to increase factory utilization, grow revenues, and address the problem of excess capacity by increasing area demand,” said Peter Su, large-area displays analyst for NPD DisplaySearch. “Migration to larger sizes is the only way to solve the oversupply issue and avoid a price war on existing sizes.”

Innolux is producing 58” TV panels at its Gen 5.5 fab, but volume growth for this product is expected to be limited in 2014 because of competition from 60” panels produced by Samsung and Sharp.

Interest in 65” panels increased after Turkey instituted its educational interactive whiteboard project using this size. In addition to the demand from education markets, 65” displays are being targeted to the TV market, and supply is expected to grow as production costs decrease.

Display sizes greater than 70” are primarily produced on a custom basis by customer request – and most are adopted for public displays. However, Samsung Display and Sharp are the only companies producing 70” TV panels for high-end TV models, with small volumes produced in the near term. In addition, some panel makers are now producing their own flagship models larger than 70”, which include special features like 4K×2K, wide color gamut, 120 Hz or 240 Hz frame rate, and options for aspect ratios of 16:9 or 21:9 “cinema,” to differentiate themselves from other suppliers.