OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 55

Reports from China suggest that LG Display is considering changing the basic structure of its white OLED panels (WOLED) used in LGD's OLED TVs. LGD is currently using yellow and blue OLED materials to create a white OLED, but now LGD may switch to an RGB based mix.

It's not clear from the Chinese reports (which are unverified yet, of course) - but it's likely that LGD will not switch to a direct-emission RGB structure, but rather use the RGB materials to create a white OLED and remain with a color-filter based design. Switching from Y/W to R/G/B may enable LGD to achieve higher color purity - and so a larger color gamut, and may also be more efficient.

In January 2016, LG Display's Vice-Chairman said that the company's goal is to ship 1 million OLED TV panels in 2016 and 1.5 million in 2017. In 2015, LGD shipped around 400,000 OLED panels.

According to a new report from Korea, LG was recently able to increase the production yields at its OLED TV fab, and is increasing its production target to 1.7 million panels in 2017. As we've seen in the past, the product mix (between 55" and 65" panels) has a major effect on the number of panels LG actually produces - when more consumer prefer 65" panels, LG can make a smaller amount of panels in total.

We are quite used to the fact that all reviews and tests to show that OLED TVs outperform the best LCD and Plasma TVs, but in a recent HDR shootout in the UK, LCD TVs actually were favored by the audience.

The UK HDTVTestweb site pitched several LCD TVs against LG'd 65" OLED65E6 TV. The TV that got the most votes was Samsung's UE65KS9500 (UN6KS9800 in the US), and the runner up was Panasonic's TX-65DX902 (65DX900 in the US). The shootout used several HDR clips.

According to UBI Research, LG shipped 140,000 OLED TV panels in Q2 2016. The company shipped 28,000 65" OLED TVs in Q2, double from the number of 65" panels it sold in Q1 2016.

UBI says that the OLED TV market has started to gain sales momentum as more companies besides LG are adopting OLEDs in their high-end TVs. LG is focusing on 65" panels as the price gap compared to high-end 65" LCDs is lower than the price gap in 55" TVs.

Samsung Electronics applied for a QLED TV trademark in the US - the trademark specifically is Samsung QLED. In the application document, Samsung said QLED technology will be applied not only to TVs - but also to mobile phone displays, monitors - and other devices.

Samsung is already shipping quantum-dots enhanced LCD TVs, but a QLED display means that the quantum-dots are used as emissive materials - there's no need for a backlight or filter layers. These kinds of displays will be very similar to OLEDs.

OLED Ink-Jet developer Kateeva presented at an industry conference in Korea, and the company's Korean branch VP states that the company will supply OLED TV deposition system prototypes later this year to customers in Korea, China and Japan.

Even more interesting is his statement that commercial mass production printers will be deployed in Samsung Display's OLED production lines in two years. Usually Kateeva refrains from discussing customers like that. This will enable Samsung to produce OLED TVs cost effectively - and compete with LG Display on this market.

Samsung Display recently appointed a new chief, and reportedly the company is now changing direction to focus more on flexible OLEDs and dispose of some of the loss-making LCD business.

According to a new report from Korea Times, SDC has now decided to separate its OLED and LCD business divisions. During the separation, Samsung also moved employees from the LCD to the OLED division.

In the past few weeks LG kept lowering the price of its 2016 OLED TVs, to the point that I'm feeling these posts are repeating themselves... but it's good news for consumers. LG now reduced the price of its 65" curved 4K OLEDC6 to $3,799. The 55" OLEDC6 still costs $2,799.

LG's OLED C6 is a series of curved 4K smart OLED TVs introduced in 2016, that feature LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR. The C6 series are LG's basic-level OLED TVs for 2016 (together with the flat OLEDB6).

LG lowered the price of some of its new 2016 OLED TV. The entry-level 55" OLEDC6 (curved) and the 55" OLEDB6 (flat) now costs $2,799 - down from $2,999.

LG also shaved off $500 from its higher end 65" OLEDE6 - which now costs $5,499.

In its latest forecasts, IHS expects 830,000 OLED TVs to ship in 2016. The market will grow to 1.4 million in 2017 and 5.8 million in 2020. IHS lowered its OLED TV forecasts as it does not see Samsung returning to the OLED TV market, and because of limited mass production capacity.

The previous IHS forecast, made earlier in 2016, predicted 8.5 million OLED TVs in 2020 - so the new forecast is 32% lower.