OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 16

A few days ago we reported that LG Electronics is getting ready to launch its 65" rollable OLED TV, the 65RX OLED TV globally. And now the rollable TV is available to pre-order in the UK. The price is £99,999 - or around $137,000. This is higher than the price is Korea, which is around $87,000. If LG manages to find customers, it will ship the TV form Korea.

LG started shipping the TV in Korea in October 2020. Last month it was reported that LG sold only 10 units.

LG Display announced that its OLED TV panels obtained a 'Discomfort Glare Free' verification from UL, a leading global safety science company. LGD says that this is the first display ever to be recognized as a display that emits no glare.

UL’s testing is based on the Unified Glare Rating (UGR), a glare assessment recognized by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). The verification mark is issued only when the UGR is 22 or less when watching TV between 70 lux (lx), which is about the brightness of a bedroom floor lamp, and 300 lux (lx), which is equivalent to the light from a bright window.

LG is gearing up to start shipping its new 2021 OLED TVs, and the company has announced pricing and availability for most of the models.

The entry-level A1 series will ship in June, with prices ranging from $1,299 for the 48" model to $3,199 for the 77-inch model.

DSCC says that flexible OLED fab utilization has been low since the beginning of 2021, and this will remain so for the next quarter as well. Utilization at rigid OLED lines is higher. This has been the pattern in previous years - lower production in the first half of the year and higher volumes at the second half of the year.

LG's OLED TV fab utilization has been historically very high (and close to 100%) - until 2020 which have seen lower utilization due the ramp-up at the Guangzhou fab. But in 2021 LG has managed to increase its yields again.

LG Electronics will soon start shipping its 2021 OLED TVs. The OLED C1, which will likely to be the company's most popular OLED TV, can now be pre-ordered in the US, starting at $2,000 for the 55-inch model. The 65-inch model costs $2,750. Both TVs will ship by the end of April 2021. We do not know the prices yet for the other sizes (the OLED C1 offers 120Hz 4K 48-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, 77-inch and also 83-inch panels).

The 2021 C1 OLED TV range features LG's 4th generation a9 AI processor, the company's latest webOS v6 and supports HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos. For gamers, the TVs offer HDMI 2.1, G-SYNC, FreSync, VRR and ALLM.

According to reports from Korea, LG Electronics is getting ready to launch its 65" rollable OLED TV, the 65RX OLED TV globally. It appears as if LG will focus most of its marking online and ship the TV from Korea.

LG started shipping the TV in Korea in October 2020. Last month it was reported that LG sold only 10 units. At around $88,000 its not surprising that LG cannot find many buyers, but it now hopes to find a larger market outside of Korea.

UBI Research says that shipments of OLED displays reached 577.88 million in 2020, up 3.7% from 2019. Total OLED revenues in 2020 increased only 0.7% to $32.68 billion as average panel price was lower in 2020 (mostly in the smartphone market).

The main growth in the OLED industry in 2020 came from smartwatches and TVs markets. Smartphone and tablet display shipments actually decreased in 2020. In 2020, new market emerged - automotive displays, laptop displays and foldable devices.

Japan-based Gatebox (a subsiriary of LINE) announced a new product called the Gatebox Grande, that is a large cylindrical box that enables people to interact with a large 3D character for customer service.

The 2-meters large Gatebox uses a 65-inch 4K WOLED Panel to show the character, in addition to sensors, microphones and speakers. The characters (which seem to be somewhat disturbing to me) are designed by Gatebox and will be used to greet customers, explain about products, etc.

According to a report from Korea, LG Electronics have lowered the price of its new OLED TV models by around 20%, compared to last year prices - in order to stay competitive and increase the demand.

The 2021 65-inch OLED evo G1, for example, is priced at 4.6 million Korean Won ($4,090 USD), which is 17.9% lower than the price of the 2020 65" OLED GX model at launch (5.6 million Won). The rest of the 2021 OLED TV models are offered at similarly lower prices.

In October 2020 LG Electronics started shipping the world's first rollable OLED TV, the 65" 65RX OLED TV. The price is set at KRW 100 million (USD 87,000). That price was actually cheaper than expected - but according to a report from Korea LGE managed to sell only 10 such TVs.

According to the report, it's not just the high price that is keeping consumers away - the TV, which is based on rollable glass, is not very durable.