OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 42

Samsung unveiled its first Micro-LED TV at CES, aptly named "The Wall". This is a 146-inch tiled 4K display that is almost 8 times larger than a 55" TV in area. We don't have any technical details yet on this display, but according to reporters at CES you cannot see the seams of the individual tiles.

Samsung says that this display will ship in 2018 - but it did not reveal the price or expected release date. It's also not clear whether you will be able to actually customize this display with smaller and/or larger sizes.

Panasonic announced its new OLED TVs for 2018, the FZ800 and FZ950. Both TVs offer the same 55" and 65" 4K WRGB (LGD) OLED panels, and feature Panasonic's latest HCX processor, dynamic LUTs, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Dynamic Scene Optimizer and extreme 2.5% calibration levels.

The FZ800 comes with built-in speakers, while the FZ950 offers a Technics-branded 80 Watt Dynamic Blade soundbar.

LG Electronics is bringing its new OLED TV lineup to CES this week, and LG Display already said it will demonstrate a 88-inch 8K OLED panel at the trade show. However the most exciting display will probably be LGD's newest prototype - a 65" rollable OLED TV that comes with a base that holds the TV when it is rolled away.

This is a prototype display, and it's likely that LGD has no immediate plans to actually release such a display. Last year LGD did say it plans to bring rollable OLED TVs to market by 2020.

According to IHS, global OLED TV shipments grew 130% from November 2016 to November 2017 to reach a new monthly record of 270,000 units. The falling prices of 55" 4K OLEDs bring them within budget of a greater number of holiday shoppers, says IHS.

IHS estimates that in 2017 over 1.4 million OLED TVs were shipped. LG Electronics is the clear market leader with a 92% market share. The growth of 65" OLED TVs (157% year-over-yera) is greater than the growth of 55" OLEDs (123%).

CLSA estimates that in 2017 Samsung Display produced 450 million OLED displays, and this will grow 26% in 2018 to reach 570 million units. Samsung's current capacity for flexible OLEDs is about 330-385.

Looking at the OLED TV market, CLSA expects it to continue its fast growth. Global OLED TV shipments will grow to 2.7 million units in 2018 (up from 1.6 million in 2017). LG Display is said to shift its focus to larger panel production (65-inch and 77-inch) so this may effect the number of panels produced.

Update: it turns out that LG will also release a 65" OLEDG8.

LG Electronics announced its 2018 OLED TV lineup. The company updated all of its models, except the OLEDG7 which will not get a successor in 2018. All the TVs are based on new a9 "intelligent processor" that promises better color and fast smart TV (webOS) operations - except the entry-level B8 which uses a scaled-down version of the chip.

The OLEDW8 will be LG's flagship TV for this year, a wallpaper design OLED TV which attaches to the wall using magnets - with a thin cable that connects to the sound bar and interface box. Like all the rest of the TVs, the W8 will support Google's Assistant for natural language control, Dolby Atmos, HDR and 4K HFR (120Hz).

LG Display announced that it has developed the world's first 88-inch 8K (7680x4320) OLED display. LGD will demonstrate this at CES 2018 next week and it seems as if it aims to launch this as a product soon as it says this will expand its OLED product portfolio.

A couple of weeks ago it was reported that LGD indeed aims to focus on larger-area OLED TVs going forward. LG's current 77" OLEDs start at $9,999 (for the OLEDG7 model), and we can expect a 88" OLED to be much more expensive (a 88" TV has a 30% larger area than a 77", but yields will be lower and of course this is a high premium TV size).

The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) reports that sales of OLED TVs in Japan were over 10,000 for the first time in November 2017. This is a 50% increase from the sales in October.

Total TV sales in Japan reached 332,000 in November (down from 427,000 in November 2016). That means that the market share of OLED TVs is just 3%. OLED TV prices dropped 18.3% from July to October in Japan.

In July 2017 LG Display announced that it has decided to build a 8.5-Gen (2200x2500) OLED line in Guangzhou, China, to make OLED TV panels. The Korean government hesitated whether to approve this plan, as it sees OLED as a strategic technology Korea' economy and this is the first time a Korean company plans to build an OLED fab outside of Korea.

Reuters reports today that LGD's plan was officially approved today. The Korean government did LGD committed to increase its use of Korean materials and equipment, invest more in Korea and strengthen security checks at its production fabs.

According to ETNews, LGD is increasing the share of 65" OLED TV panels in production. In Q3 2017 LGD produced 65% 55-inch panels and 35% 65-inch panels, but in November 65-inch panels shipments surpassed those of 55-inch panels.

This trend is expected to continue in 2018, and LGD is also ramping up production of 77-inch panels.