OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 41

UBI Research estimates that AMOLED shipments reached 440 million units in 2017 (up 13.6% from 2016), with revenues reaching $27.1 billion (up 62.3% from 2016). Only yesterday did DSCC release its own estimates of $23.2 billion in revenues for the AMOLED market in 2017.

The AMOLED market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.5% to reach almost a billion units in 2022. Revenues will grow faster at 22% and reach $80.5 billion in 2022.

Towards the end of 2015 LG Display announced that it plans to build a new OLED fab (P10) in Paju in a $8.7 billion investment to produce both mid-sized flexible OLED and large-sized OLED TV panels. LGD considered for a while whether this new fab will be based on Gen-8 production or Gen-10.

According to a new report from Korea, LGD has ordered its first batch of deposition equipment for the P10 line, which will be Gen-10.5 (2940 x 3370 mm). The first line will have a production capacity of 30,000 substrates per month, which will greatly increase LGD's total OLED TV production capacity. LGD finished the construction of the building and the fab is expected to be complete in the first half of 2018.

LG Display published a beautiful video today that introduces the company's OLED TV and signage technologies, explains the benefits of OLEDs and presents LGD's latest beautiful OLED signage installations.

In this video you can see LGD's curved OLED installations at Dubai Mall, Incheon airport, the Seoul N Tower and more.

Philips (TPVision) announced its OLED TV lineup for 2018. Philips will offer three models, the OLED 973, OLED 873 and OLED 803. All of these 2018 TVs will be pretty similar, and all will feature 4K WRGB OLED panels, Philips' P5 "Perfect-Picture" processor, 3-sided Ambilight, HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ (will arrive in Q2 2018), Quad-core Android TV platform with Google Assistant and 16GB of memory.

The main difference is the TV design, and the 973 will also offer a 60W soundbar. The 973 and 873 will come in 65", while the 803 will also have a 55" option. The OLED 973 and OLED 873 will launch in Q1 2018, and the OLED 803 will arrive in the summer. Philips did not yet disclose the pricing of its new OLED TVs.

UBI Research estimates that the global AMOLED production capacity will grow at a CAGR of 48% from 2018 to 2020. Overall production size will grow from 13 million square meters in 2017 to 40 million square meters in 2020.

Small and medium-sized displays will continue to lead the AMOLED market, with 32 million square meters in 2020 (compared to 8.4 million in 2020). Samsung Display will continue to dominate but its market share will drop to around 45% in 2020 (down from around 90% in 2017).

Many OLED producers believe that Ink-Jet printing of OLED emissive materials is the best way to achieve lower-cost OLED TV production, and to enable OLEDs to compete in the medium part of the TV market. Ink-Jet printing is an efficient process (less material waste compared to evaporation) and it can be very quick as well. The main drawbacks of inkjet are the limited resolution and the need for soluble emissive materials which are less efficient compared to evaporation ones.

A Kateeva OLED ink-jet printing system

These challenges are being overcome, and it seems that at least four groups (in Korea, Japan and China) are charging forward towards mass production of ink-jet printed OLEDs. Ink-jet printer makers and soluble material suppliers are also optimistic ink-jet printing commercialization will soon be here as the material performance gap is diminishing.

China TV maker Changhong is reportedly showing a wide range of OLED TVs at CES 2018. One of the TVs employs a similar design to Sony's 2017 A1E with the Acoustic Surface back stand. Interestingly Sony's discarded the design idea in its latest OLED TV, the AF8.

We do not have information about Changhong's other OLED TVs at CES, but it is likely they also had their latest 65" 4K AI-powered Q5A on display.

China-based Skyworth announced that it will introduce new AI-chip powered OLED TVs in 2018. The company says that these new chips will "leverage artificial intelligence to search, identify and refactor images as a means to accurately enhance image quality and restore the immersive aspect, delivering a more lifelike viewing experience".

Skyworth has been producing OLED TVs since 2014, when it introduced its first OLED TV, the Tianchi E980. Since then it released several such TVs, the latest one being the W9 'wallpaper' OLED TV introduced in 2017.

LG Display is demonstrating its latest prototype at CES, a 65" rollable OLED TV that can roll inside its base when not in use. The video below shows this display in action, although we cannot see how the display actually rolls inside the box which is a shame:

Remember that this is still just a prototype display, and it's likely that LGD has no immediate plans to actually release such a display. Last year LGD said it plans to bring rollable OLED TVs to market by 2020.

HiSense (Australia) announced that it plans to introduce its first OLED TV in the first half of 2018. The company did not disclose any details beyond that announcement, though.

HiSense 2014 OLED TV prototype

Hisense has been demonstrating and promising OLED TVs for a long time (in 2014 the company demonstrated its first 55" OLED TV prototype, and in 2011 the company aimed to release a 15-inch OLED "TV"). But it's likely that now HiSense is indeed ready to release a real OLED TV to the market.