OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News - Page 58

In January 2016 Samsung confirmed it is developing OLED TV panels, and a report from Korea stated that the company is discussing a large investment (around $3 billion US) into a new OLED TV panel fab.

Only last month did Samsung comment that OLED TV technology is not ready yet, and today we hear a new report from Korea that claims that SDC decided to make a substantial investment towards OLED TV production.

LG started shipping the 55" OLEDE6 OLED TV for $3,899. The OLEDE6 is a flat-panel 4K smart OLED TVs introduced in 2016 that features an ultra-slim on-glass design, a fixed soundbar, LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR.

A few days ago LG started shipping the 65" model for $5,999.

LG's flat OLED E6 were introduced in early 2016, and the price of the 65" model was set at $6,999. LG started shipping those new TVs, and the price is actually a $1,000 dollars cheaper. The 55" model is not shipping yet - and the official price is $3,999.

The OLEDE6 features an ultra-slim on-glass design, a fixed soundbar, LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR.

China's Skyworth launched new OLED TVs for 2016, the S9300 and the S9-I, which seem to be the same TVs with support for HDR. Both TVs are offered in 55" and 65" and feature 4K resolution, JBL speakers and Skyworth's SmartTV platform 5.0. All the TVs, of course, use WRGB OLED panels made by LG Display.

The 55" 55S9300 costs 元14,999 (about $2,300) while the 65" 659300 costs 元25,999 (about $4,000). The S9-I are of course more expensive, and the 55" 55S9-I costs 元16,999 (about $2,600) while the 65" 65S9-I costs 元29,999 (about $4,600).

Idemitsu Kosan announced that LG's latest OLED TVs use the company's materials. Idemitsu and LG have a strategic OLED alliance in place since 2009, and the two companies signed a mutual-cooperation agreement and patent licensing in 2014.

Earlier this month UBI estimated that Idemitsu Kosan's OLED material sales grew from around $50 million in 2014 to around $80 million in 2015. Idemitsu's OLED material shipment to LG are probably what's behind this large increase as LG is ramping up its OLED TV panel production

LG started shipping its 2016 curved 4K OLED TV model, the 55" OLED C6: Amazon.com now lists the 55" C6 for $3,245. The 55" C6 follows LG's 2016 top-of-the-line 65" Signature OLEDG6, that costs $7,999. Another 2016 OLED TV, the 65" OLED E6 will ship soon for $6,999.

The OLED C6 is a curved 4K smart OLED TV that features LG's webOS 3.0, Color Prime PRO technology and HDR. LG will also release a 65" model later this year.

LG Display announced that it has signed a deal with the city government of Hai Phong, the third-largest city in Vietnam, to build an OLED TV module factory. LGD will invest $100 million to establish a local office in the city and begin construction of the factory later in 2016.

LG Display aims to start operating the new factory next year. The company hopes that the low costs in Vietnam will enable them to produce OLED TVs at a lower cost - while still being very close to China. The panels themselves will of course be produced in LGD's fabs in Korea.

LG recently launched a new commercial OLED unit, offering OLED displays for retail and signage applications. LG Electronics published two nice videos showing and praising the large OLED installations the company recently installed at Seoul's Incheon Airport and the N Seoul Tower in Seoul itself:

At the N Seoul Tower LG installed four different OLED installations with 248 55" OLED TV panels. On the tower's first floor, LG installed the OLED Panorama and OLED tunnel. On the second floor is the OLED circle and on the fourth floor there is the 24-meters long OLED Wave.

Last week Sharp agreed to sell a two-thirds stake to Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision) for $3.5 billion. According to Digitimes Research, Foxconn and Sharp's post-acquisition focus will be on OLEDs, and out of the total investment $1.8 billion will be allocated for OLED technology.

Foxconn aims to start producing IGZO-based OLEDs for smartphones in 2018 (probably they aim to become Apple's 2nd OLED supplier) and then to start developing larger OLEDs too. Digitimes layers our Foxconn's plans - 3 million tablet/notebook panels in 2021 and 10.4 million panels in 2025. In 2021 Foxconn will also start producing OLED TV panels - 252,000 panels in 2021 and 7.2 million panels in 2025.

MagnaChip announced that since 2013 when initial OLED TV sales began, the company shipped over 6 million driver ICs for OLED TVs.

Since started selling OLED TVs LG Display made less than a million OLED panels - which means that each TV has over 6 driver ICs. Samsung also produced some panels back in 2013 and 2014 but in very small volume.