2010-07 - Korea IT Times

Event Preview
Kwon Oh-Kyong, Organizing Committee Chair of IMID 2010 and Distinguished
Professor of Hanyang University
Lee Sin-Doo, Executive Committee Chair of IMID 2010 and Professor of Seoul
National University
26 KOREA IT TIMES | July 2010
developing similar technologies and necklace-like
mobile phones. What's more, the
HMD (Head Mounted Display) technology
that used to be used for military purposes
is being introduced to the public through
games. As a result, R&D activity is underway
to develop next-generation, state-ofthe-art
technologies in various sectors in
line with industrial demands for new concepts
that go beyond market staples like
mobile phone, laptops, PCs and TV. Thus,
people are expecting that a new form of
markets like public displays will emerge.
A) Lee Sin-Doo: From a different perspective,
we need to think about what kinds of
products will come to our society in what
way. In other words, there are two ways,
one is upgrading existing products and the
other is developing completely new products.
The market for upgrading existing
products has continued to see technological
developments, but in terms of market
demand, the market has been oversaturated.
Take flexible displays for example.
Although they are emerging as an alternative
to the creation of new markets, unless
a new market for flexible displays is created,
the need for flexible displays will remain
lackluster in the current display market
that is armed with most of the elements
users need.
3D glasses, for instance, have evolved
greatly, and are divided into active glasses
and passive ones. As of now, active glasses
are mainly developed on the grounds that
they are less fatigue-inducing. However,
long hours of wearing active glasses do result
in fatigue. Therefore, technological development
will be pursued towards goggleless
3D. Here comes a completely new
technological development. This is because
3D without glasses should be preceded
by 3D controls in hardware and 3D
production of fundamental contents. In
conclusion, to create new markets rather
than simply maintaining existing markets,
both academia and industry should make
efforts. I believe that creation of new markets
is our responsibility for the survival of
future technologies.
Q) China and Taiwan are chasing closely
after Korea. What kind of strategy
should Korea have to follow through
with to secure its No.1 position in the
global display market?
A) Kwon Oh-Kyong: The display industry, a
parts industry, is heavily influenced by upstream
and downstream industries. Thus,
building networks with its upstream and
downstream industries is all-important. In
short, in the case of LCD panels, both
growth of downstream industries (such as
LCD TV, monitors, laptop computers and
multi-media products) and upstream industries'
speedy supply of parts like glass
substrates, color filters and backlight units
have a significant bearing on the competitiveness
of LCD panels. In addition, although
downstream industries have succeeded
in localization of parts and material
they use, we still imports most of our raw
material needs from abroad.
Therefore, first of all, Korea has to push
ahead with large-scale LCD panel production
in China and swiftly respond to rivaling
companies' move to invest in large panels
in China. Second, at the moment, LCD panels
are being commoditized, so continued
efforts for technological innovations should
be made in line with industrial trends in
technological advances. In other words,
mid- and long-term, preemptive investment
in R&D for next-generation products
should be made.
Third, compared to other high-tech industries,
the display industry requires a wide