OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 22

Sony started shipping its 2020 OLED TV range, the Bravia A8H. The 55" model's price is $2,299 while the 65" one is $3,299 - the TVs are now available on Amazon.com.

The A8H series is based on Google's Android smart TV platform and features support for Apple AirPlay 2 and Homekit and Amazon Alexa. The A8H features Sony's Acoustic Surface and the company's X1 Ultimate picture processor, Pixel Contrast Booster and X-Motion Clarity. The A8H supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision standards.

UBI Research lowered its forecast for the OLED industry in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. UBI decreased its total market revenue forecast by 4.8% to $36.7 billion.

UBI now estimates that 612 million OLED panels will ship in 2020, down from its previous estimate of 660 million. The OLED TV market forecast was reduced dramatically from 4.9 million panels to 3.6 million.

According to reports from Korea, LG Display expects a decline of up to 10% in demand for OLED TV panels in Q2 2020, due to the CoronaVirus pandemic.

LGD's original plan was to ship over 6 million OLED TV panels in 2020 - which include the smaller 48" OLED TV panels launched at CES 2020. In its latest note, DSCC sees 4.5 million OLED TV panels being produced in 2020, while Omdia's forecast is for only 3.5 million TVs.

This article is an extract from The OLED Handbook, 2020 edition, and gives a short introduction to the current OLED TV market status. The latest edition of the OLED handbook was published in March 2020.

LG Display

The OLED TV market is completely dominated today by LG Display, the only company that produces OLED TVs commercially. In 2013 both Samsung and LGD commenced production of OLED TVs, but Samsung quickly halted its OLED TV program to focus on Quantum-Dots enhanced TVs. In 2019 Samsung announced it is re-entering the OLED TV market and is set to build a QD-OLED production fab (more on this below).

LG Display adopted Kodak’s WRGB OLED technology (now owned by LG’s own GOT) and this technology, combined with oxide-TFT (IGZO) backplanes, enabled the company to economically scale up its large-area panel production. LG Display is producing 48 to 88 OLED TV panels, and is supplying its panels to several TV makers, including LGE, Sony, Panasonic, Philips and more.

LG Display reported its financial results for Q1 2020. LGD's revenues were 4.7 trillion Won ($3.8 billion USD), decreased 26% from the previous quarter and 20% from Q1 2019. The company's net loss in the quarter was 199 billion Won ($161 million USD).

LGD's revenues and earnings were below analysts expectations - the company's business was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic which caused lower demand for smartphones and TV panels (which were also hit due to the postponing of major sporting events). LCD panel prices have also taken a hit.

LG Display announced that MBC Studio will adopt the company's transparent OLED screens in its Korean 2020 election result broadcast tomorrow (April 15). In February 2019 LG Display started producing its 55" FHD transparent commercial OLED displays, and LGD says that this is the first time its transparent OLEDs will be featured in a high rating broadcast (but this isn't so - see note below on DR1's June 2019 broadcast).

LG Display's transparent OLEDs feature a brightness of 150 cd/m² (peak white brightness of 400 cd/m²) and a transparency of 38% and a color gamut of 120% NTSC. The display can optionally include touch functionality.

Huawei is set to release its first OLED TV, the 65" X65. The company has released some posters that tease the new TV:

According to reports from China, the X65 OLED TV will be based on Huawei's Hongmeng smart OS and will include a 24MP pop-up camera, a 14-speaker setup and an ambient sensor to adjust the screen image to enable more accurate images. Huawei is expected to officially launch its first OLED TV later this week.

Market research company Omdia (previous IHS Markit) have revised down its global TV outlook - and say that it expects only 3.5 million OLED TV units to ship in 2020. Omdia's previous estimate was 4.5 million units, and this too was decreased from its original forecast in late 2019 of 5.5 million.

The OLED TV is still growing (unlike the entire TV market which will shrink in 2020), but due to the CotonaVirus outbreak, LGD's plans to expand production will be delayed.

Reuters reports that Samsung Display has decided to stop all LCD production by the end of 2020. The company will continue to support it current customers without any issues.

SDC has two LCD production lines in Korea. One of these will be converted to next-generation QD-OLED TV panels (in a $10.8 billion investment announced in October 2019). According to Reuters, the second line will also be converted to QD-OLED in the future. SDC did not yet decide what will it do with its two LCD production lines in China.

DSCC says that OLED area shipments will grow in 2020 to around 10.5 million square meters, up from 8 million square meters in 2019 - a growth of around 31%. In terms of revenues, the OLED market will grow 35% in 2020 to reach $37.6 billion. DSCC says that in 2020, 731 million OLEDs will be produced (up 27% from 2019).

Smartphone revenues will reach $30.7 billion in 2019 (up 35% from 2019) while TV revenues will grow 28% to $3.2 billion. Smartwatch revenues will increase 11% in 2020 to $2 billlion. The revenues for all other OLED applications are expected to increase by 69% in 2020 to $1.6 billion, mainly driven by laptop OLED displays.