OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 57

In an interesting story about how LG Electronics' OLED quality control - and how the company tests its OLED TVs before shipping, the Korean company also reveals that its latest OLED TVs feature a lifetime of 100,000 hours - or 30 years of 10 hours per day. In 2013, LG's OLED panels had a lifespan of about 36,000.

In the same article, IHS is quoted saying that LGE sold 113,000 OLED TVs in Q1 2016, which is 96.4% of the market - which means that LGD produced about 117,000 TV panels. A couple of months ago LG Display itself said that it has shipped "less than 200,000 OLED TVs in Q1" - but it is still on track to sell around a million panels in 2016.

LG Display had a large booth at SID, showcasing its latest OLED technologies. This was an impressive display with some beautiful screens, even though LGD did not actually demonstrate any new panels, and all those demonstrations were shown at CES 2016 in January.

So first up we have the 77" UHD HDR OLED TV, the Signature OLEDG6. This was the first time I saw this TV, and it was simply stunning. The TV won the best-of-show award at SID, and it was truly merited.

LG announced prices and started shipping its basic OLED TV 2016 models. So first up with the OLED B6- the 55" OLEDB6 costs $3,997 while the 65" model costs $5,997. Both are now shipping. The OLEDB6, which are LG's entry-level 2016 4K OLEDs, feature LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR.

LG's OLED C6, which are similar to the B6 - but in curved form, cost the same - the 55" OLEDC6 costs $3,997 while the 65" model costs $5,997. The 65" C6 model is not yet shipping, though.

According to ETNews, LG Electronics is set to release the 77" Signature OLEDG6 TV in Korea soon for 45 million KRW (around $38,000).

LG's Signature OLED G6 is LG's top-end TV model for 2016. The G6 feature an ultra-slim on-glass design, a high-end pivoting Harman Kardon soundbar, LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR. The G6 models are available in 65 and 77 inches, and the 65" G6 OLED TV is now shipping for $7,999.

China's Skyworth recently launched its new OLED TVs for 2016 - both with 4K resolution and support for HDR. In 2015 the company was optimistic about its OLED TVs - and said aims to sell 30,000 OLED TVs by the end of March 2016 (the company's FY2015) - and 200,000 OLED TVs by the end of March 2017.

Skyworth's main problem with those OLEDs was that LG Display cannot supply them with enough panels, especially the 65" ones. According to report from China, though, Skyworth is way behind its OLED goals.

As LG rolls out its 2016 OLED TVs, deep discounts are offered for its last year models. First up we have the 55" 4K curved 55EG9600, which is sold for $1,899 on Amazon.com - down from $2,999. The EG9600 features HDR support (via a firmware upgrade to existing customers), a new anti-glare filter, WebOS 2.0 and quad-core CPUs.

Adorama offers the flat 55" 4K 55EF9500 for $1,949 on ebay. The EF9500 is similar to the EG9600 and normally sells for $2,999.

Samsung Electronics' president and TV chief Kim Hyun-seok said that the company has no immediate plans to make OLED TVs. Kim says that there has been little progress with OLED TVs, and production is still tricky and expensive. In fact, Kim said that "I wouldn’t say OLED is our future direction".

Kim has high hopes for Samsung's Quantum-Dot LCD TV technology, and sees it progressing faster than OLEDs. Samsung claims that its quantum dot TV already outpaces current OLED TVs in terms of picture quality and brightness.

Samsung announced that Kwon Oh-hyun, the current head of Samsung Electronics’ device solutions (DS) will be Samsung Display's next CEO. Kwon will be in charge of both Samsung Electronics semiconductor and display businesses.

Samsung Display is seeing its profits shrink as the display market is facing tough times - and in Q1 2016 SDC posted a loss of $237 million. As China (mainly led by BOE) is set to become a leader in LCD, Samsung Display is focusing on OLED displays. According to analysts in Korea, the new appointment may mark the beginning of SDC's entrance to the OLED TV market.

LG Display announced that it plans to invest almost $275 million (310 billion Won) to build a new flexible OLED production line.

This new investment is in addition to the planned E5 6-Gen (1500x1850 mm) flexible OLED fab announced in July 2015. The E5 line will cost $900 million, and will have a capacity of 7,500 monthly substrates - or 1.5 million 5.5" panels. The new fab is scheduled to begin mass production in the first half of 2017.

IHS say that the lower prices of AMOLEDs and the improvements in production is attracting more device makers to adopt AMOLED panels in their products. This leads to rapid increase in AMOLED shipments.

IHS sees 395 million AMOLEDs shipped in 2016 (this seems a bit optimistic) - an increase of 40% compared to 2015. Revenues will increase by 25% to reach $15 billion. AMOLED penetration in smartphone displays will rise from 17% in 2015 to 21% in 2016. IHS says that "AMOLED is becoming the shiniest spot in the flat-panel display industry".