Following LGD's recent demonstration of a 77" flexible and transparent OLED display, the company has now decided (according to Business Korea, anyway) to start producing rollable large-area (55 to 75 inch) OLED TVs in 2020.
LGD will produce these rollable TVs in its upcoming P10 OLED fab in Paju. The P10 is LGD's most ambitious OLED fab - with a price tag of over $8 billion, it is expected to commence production in 2018, although it will take some time before mass production begins. The P10 will exclusively be used to produce OLEDs - both OLED TV panels (9-Gen or 10-Gen substrates, it seems LG did not decide yet) and small/medium flexible OLEDs.
Business Korea estimates that a rollable 55" OLED panel will carry a price tag of 30 million Won - which is about $26,000. It's not clear what kind of value a rollable TV panel will bring to consumers - but LGD may have some application ideas. When the company unveiled its 77" 4K transparent and flexible prototype, it showed two possible applications - a smart desk and a commercial retail setup.
Are rollable displays the future of the TV market? Back in 2011, Sony envisioned rollable OLED TVs. In an interview, Sony's Dr. Kazumasa Nomoto said that "The time will come when the very idea that an enormous black box (TV) was ever placed in rooms will seem strange". Maybe so, but of course LGD will have to find ways to produce these OLEDs at a much lower cost. Still this could be an exciting first step, 2.5 years from today.
