OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 23

DSCC says that OLED panel revenues in Q4 2019 reached $8.1 billion, down 2% from Q3 2019 and pretty much the same as in Q4 2018. In terms of units, DSCC says that in Q4 2019 124 million smartphone panels were shipped, 31 million wearable panels and 998,000 TV panels.

Smartphone revenues in Q4 2019 were down 2% from Q4 2018 (due to lower average sales price for both rigid and flexible panels, the number of panels actually increased 4%), and revenues for TVs were up 30% (to $752 million). Smartwatches remain the 3rd largest market for OLED panels, and experienced strong growth in 2019, but it seems as if the growth may have plateaued (in Q4 the revenues were down 7% from last year).

LG Electronics is getting ready to start shipping its 2020 OLED TVs, and the company announced prices and shipping dates for most of the TV models. Amazon.com now lists the TVs which can be pre-ordered.

Starting at the entry-level, LG's OLEDBX will ship in April 2020, starting at $2,500 for the 55" model. The OLEDCX range, which will probably be LG's most popular series, will also start shipping in early April 2020, with prices starting at $2130 for the 48-inch model.

IHS Markit estimates that 1.1 million OLED TVs shipped in Q4 2019. This is the first time over 1 million OLED TVs were shipped in a quarter. Total OLED TV sales in 2019 reached 3 million units - a 1.3% of the total TV market.

LG Electronics is still the leader in the OLED TV market, with a market share of 53.9% (598,000 units). LG's market share is dropping as more and more companies join the OLED camp. China has become the world's largest OLED TV market (33% by units) - surpassing Korea (32.1%) for the first time in 2019.

LG Display's original plan was to start producing OLED TV panels at its 8.5-Gen OLED fab in Guangzhou in October 2019, but the company faced technical issues - and even though LGD said it fixed these issues and production will start by the end of January 2020, that didn't happen.

According to a new report from Korea, the CoronaVirus outbreak caused LGD further delays, and mass production is now expected to start in 'early' Q2 2020 - so April 2020 at the earliest.

LG Display originally planned to start producing OLED TV panels at its 8.5-Gen OLED fab in Guangzhou in October 2019, but LGD faced technical issues and production was delayed to Q1 2020. Last month LGD said it finally fixed its technical issues and production will start by the end of January 2020 - but here we are at the middle of February and production hasn't started yet.

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. It seems certain now that LGD will not be able to meet its goals. IHS also reduced its 2020 OLED TV production forecast from 5 million units to 4.5 million.

LG Display posted its financial results for Q4 2019, with a lower-than-expected loss of $361.6 million and revenues of $5.4 billion - a 10% increase over last quarter, driven by a rise in sales of OLED TVs and smartphone OLEDs.

LGD has given an optimistic forecast for 2020 as it sees higher demand for its OLED TV and mobile P-OLED panels. LGD expects its OLED TV panel revenue to "rise steeply" as its Guangzhou OLED TV fab increases its production - LGD now says it expects the fab to start mass production in March 2020.

Philips recently announced its latest OLED TVs, the OLED 805, and the company is apparently worried about burn-in issues, and it is developing software technology to mitigate such issues - specifically the problem with network logos.

Pocket-lint reports that it has seen Philips' new technology being demonstrated. Philips' algorithm recognizes these logos, and reduces the brightness of the pixels that display the logo. This extends the lifetime of these pixels and should keep them at the same level as other pixels that do not display constant logos.

According to a report from Korea, Japan's Sharp will start offering OLED TVs in Japan, based on LGD's WOLED panels. Sharp's first OLED TVs will launch by the end of 2020.

According to the ETNews, in Q3 2019 Sharp was the leading TV vendor in Japan - and as the company starts to adopt OLED panels for its premium TVs this could be good news for LG Display and the OLED market in general.

On August 2019 LG Display announced that it started producing OLED TV panels at its 8.5-Gen OLED fab in Guangzhou, China. But later it was reported that LGD faced technical issues and production did not begin as planned in October 2019 - and LGD delayed production to Q1 2020.

According to a new report from Korea, LGD finally fixed its technical issues and managed to optimize the yields at the new fab. Mass production will begin in Guangzhou by the end of this month.

In November 2018 HiSense launched its first OLED TV range, the Series X and later in Europe. According to reports, demand for HiSense's OLEDs were lower-than-expected, at least in Australia. In 2019 the company also unveiled its dual-LCD (ULED-XD) technology that achieves a very high contrast ratio.

According to PC Magazine, HiSense decided to retire its OLED line of TVs, and instead adopt ULED-XD technology to compete in the high-end segment.