2016 FPC spring drived by wearable smart devices

Manufacturing industry struggled in 2015 with even worse situation in developing countries such as China, which directly impacted printed circuit board industry. Many businesses closed down and the market expectation in 2016 is still obscure and hard to predict. However, a coin has two sides. New market of wearable devices achieved great performance in last year with growing penetrance and over 50% profit margin. Being drived by this situation, shipment of flexible printed circuit (FPC) applied in wearable devices got an obvious growth during past a couple of months.

At same time, the growth of FPC was also drived by the booming touch screen market. By contrast, grid printed cirucit board industry struggled in past two years. Its annual shipment and industrial profit margin stayed at very low level. FPC market will appear heavier polarization at the marketplace. Big business will earn more orders and small one lose competition and survive in some refined market segment.

With the Matthew Effect, small business in FPC market has to transform and expand capabilities, because scale and quality are the most important factors for wearable device makers.