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UTI Develops Low Cost UTG, Called UTI Folding Glass (UFG)
August 02, 2020
South Korea’s UTI Inc, a supplier of camera lens covers to many of the world’s top smartphone vendors, has developed what it calls UTI Folding Glass (UFG), which costs half as much as rival technology (UTG) and is already in testing by around ten firms, including Chinese and American phone makers, Chief Executive Officer Doug Park said in an interview. Specialist glass is going to upgrade the quality and clarity of future foldable displays, with U.S., Japanese and Korean companies vying for business. Samsung’s display unit has its own solution, but the UTI chief argued his glass has the advantage of being more robust and easier to produce. A number of smartphone OEMs are testing or considering UFG for their upcoming devices, he added without specifying their names.
UTI’s prototype foldable glass panels are superior to plastic in scratch resistance and are thus compatible with stylus pens, such as the Samsung S Pen bundled with Galaxy Note devices. The crease problem that’s plagued early foldables is also minimized, said the CEO, and UTI’s production technique doesn’t require exotic types of glass, cutting the raw materials cost by as much as 80%. In the first half of next year, UTI’s Park expects to see three to four foldable devices featuring his firm’s UFG arrive on the market. Capable of producing 200,000 panels per month today, the company anticipates ramping capacity up “to half a million a month on average in the second half of next year and that would generate $25 million per month”, which calculates to an ASP of $50/panel.
UTI’s earnings dropped by 20% as the smartphone market took a nosedive in the first half of 2020, but the company expects a recovery in the 2nd half. Most of Samsung’s flagship phones use UTI’s lens covers for their cameras. The company has relationships with about a dozen device makers, most of them smartphone vendors, and it says four-fifths of them are testing UFG for their folding products.
“In terms of costs, our foldable glass is ½ that of Samsung supplier’ Dowoo Insys.
Samsung is sticking with UTG in the medium term, at least as far as its premium foldable smartphones are concerned. Two months ago, the company still had doubts about UTG’s viability in the context of Galaxy Fold 2 mass production. Price was one of the factors as was the added weight of the final product. Recently, we reported Samsung Display and Corning agreed on terms for a new UTG.
August 02, 2020
South Korea’s UTI Inc, a supplier of camera lens covers to many of the world’s top smartphone vendors, has developed what it calls UTI Folding Glass (UFG), which costs half as much as rival technology (UTG) and is already in testing by around ten firms, including Chinese and American phone makers, Chief Executive Officer Doug Park said in an interview. Specialist glass is going to upgrade the quality and clarity of future foldable displays, with U.S., Japanese and Korean companies vying for business. Samsung’s display unit has its own solution, but the UTI chief argued his glass has the advantage of being more robust and easier to produce. A number of smartphone OEMs are testing or considering UFG for their upcoming devices, he added without specifying their names.
UTI’s prototype foldable glass panels are superior to plastic in scratch resistance and are thus compatible with stylus pens, such as the Samsung S Pen bundled with Galaxy Note devices. The crease problem that’s plagued early foldables is also minimized, said the CEO, and UTI’s production technique doesn’t require exotic types of glass, cutting the raw materials cost by as much as 80%. In the first half of next year, UTI’s Park expects to see three to four foldable devices featuring his firm’s UFG arrive on the market. Capable of producing 200,000 panels per month today, the company anticipates ramping capacity up “to half a million a month on average in the second half of next year and that would generate $25 million per month”, which calculates to an ASP of $50/panel.
UTI’s earnings dropped by 20% as the smartphone market took a nosedive in the first half of 2020, but the company expects a recovery in the 2nd half. Most of Samsung’s flagship phones use UTI’s lens covers for their cameras. The company has relationships with about a dozen device makers, most of them smartphone vendors, and it says four-fifths of them are testing UFG for their folding products.
“In terms of costs, our foldable glass is ½ that of Samsung supplier’ Dowoo Insys.
Samsung is sticking with UTG in the medium term, at least as far as its premium foldable smartphones are concerned. Two months ago, the company still had doubts about UTG’s viability in the context of Galaxy Fold 2 mass production. Price was one of the factors as was the added weight of the final product. Recently, we reported Samsung Display and Corning agreed on terms for a new UTG.
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