Competing technologies

As we reported last month, TCL CSoT officially announced that it has agreed to buy LG Display's last LCD production line in Guangzhou, China, for $1.5 billion (10.8 billion Yuan). 

TCL CSoT will acquire 80% of LG Display's 8.5-Gen LCD production line, and 100% of its LCD module line in Guangzhou. The two companies plan to complete the deal by the end of March 2025. LG's LCD production line has a capacity to produce 180,000 TV panels per month, most of these sized 55" and up (about 6% of the total LCD panel market), and had a net profit of $85 million last year over $900 million in revenues. The module factory can produce 2.3 million units per month. The two factories serve customers such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Skyworth, and more. 

According to reports from Japan, Apple decided to adopt a 6.1" AMOLED display for its upcoming iPhone SE 4 smartphone, which will mean that all of the company's smartphone products will be based on OLED displays.

We actually reported this in March 2024, and back then it was suggested that Apple's target price was $25 for the OLED display - which was too low for Samsung Display that decided not to continue with its discussions with Apple. Back then it was estimate that BOE will supply the majority of the displays, and some orders will go to Tianma. According to the new report, the second supplier is actually LG Display.

US retailer Value Electronics hosted their annual TV shootout® (now in its 20ths year), checking high-end calibrated TVs to see which model provides the best image quality. This year, Value Electronics tested six TVs, three of which were OLEDs, and three miniLEDs.

The three OLED TVs were the LG G4, Samsung S95D and Sony A95L. As in previous years, the top performing TV is a QD-OLED TV - specifically Sony's A95L. All of the three OLED TV models outperformed the miniLED TVs, as you can see by clicking on the image above.

LG Display has decided to sell its last LCD production line, as the company plans to completely focus on OLED display technology. TCL CSoT will buy the fab, in Guangzhou, China, for about $1.5 billion.

The two companies hope to complete the transaction by the end of 2024. The fab, originally built in 2014, produces LCD TV panels. 

Japan-based Sharp Corp, an LCD display industry pioneer, announced that it will stop all of its large-area LCD production by the end of 2024. Sharp's Osaka-based factory was the last LCD TV fab in Japan, and it will be turned into a data center run by its subsidiary Sakai Display Products Corp.

Sharp says that its current midterm plans are strengthen its home appliances and office equipment businesses, by incorporating AI technologies. It also plans to sell its semiconductor business. Sharp says it will focus its remaining small/medium LCD display business on the automotive and VR sectors.