When LG Display announced their 55" OLED TVs, they said they will first gauge market reaction - before deciding whether to expand capacity (beyond their 8.5-Gen pilot line capable of 48,000 monthly units scheduled for July 2012). After the great reception at CES, it seems that LG Display already made the decision to invest in expansion, and are now considering whether to build a new line or to convert an existing LCD line to OLED.
The company says that building a new 8.5-Gen OLED fab will cost about 2.5 times the cost of a similar capacity LCD plant. Converting an existing LCD line to OLED will be cheaper, although they wouldn't say by how much. It will take LG around 18 months to fully convert an LCD line to OLED. So even if they decide on that route soon, we cannot expect increased capacity before the end of 2013.
LG Display also reveals that the lifetime of the blue OLED material is 30,000 hours (which dictates the lifetime of the entire TV set). That's about 10 years based on 8 hours per day.
