OLED technology is based on organic semiconductors that are used to create beautiful, flexible and efficient display panels. OLED-Info, established in 2004, is the world's leading OLED industry portal - offering a range of services to the OLED industry including a web publication, newsletter, market insights, and marketing and business-development services.
HKC's GS27QK is a gaming monitor that offers a 27" 240Hz 2560x1440 QD-OLED panel, two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4 port.
The GS27QK will ship soon in China for around $500.
TCL CSoT has announced several times in the past that it plans to start producing OLED display using an inkjet printing process by the end of 2024, and a new report from Korea updates the latest status from the company.
TCL CSoT originally said it will produce OLED TV panels, but later updated its plans to produce IT displays. According to the Elec, the company has decided that its first panel to be produced is a 21.6" monitor displays for medical devices. The company has unveiled this panel in SID 2024 - it has a 4K resolution and a peak brightness of 350 nits.
In this article, we examine the theoretical question of whether or not it makes sense for LG Display and Samsung Display to merge, into one company.
Note that we have no indications that such a merger is even considered by the two companies, but we feel this is a fascinating topic that should be explored, and is supported by several strong arguments.
We'll start with a short introduction to the two companies, then see why there are many reasons to pursue a merger, then explain the reasons against a possible merger, and finally detail the current financial situations of both companies.
Samsung Display and LG Display
Samsung Display Corporation (SDC) is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. SDC is a leader in OLED production, with a market share of over 40% in the small OLED display market (the second largest player, BOE, holds a market share of around 15%). SDC produces over 300 million AMOLED displays per year - supplying them to Apple's iPhones and tablets, Samsung Electronics Galaxy phones, and many more. The Company also produces larger-area QD-OLED panels for TVs and gaming monitors, and has a capacity of producing around a million TV panels per year. SDC no longer produces any LCDs. SDC does produce microLED displays (but on a very small scale, this is currently a strictly next-gen display technology), and the company develops OLED microdisplays (and also holds OLED microdisplay producer eMagin which it acquired in 2023 for $243 million).
Samsung's Galaxy A16 smartphone offers a 6.7" 90Hz 1080x2340 AMOLED display, a Mediatek Dimensity 6300 chipset (Exynos 1330 in some version), up to 8 GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage - and a microSDXC card slot.
The A16 will ship soon starting at around $250.
LG Display announced that its entire lineup of OLED TV and monitor panels, from 27 to 97 inches (all of its WOLED panels), have become the world’s first displays to receive Eyesafe Circadian Certification. LG Display’s OLED TV and monitor panels achieved the highest circadian certification rating (CPF 50).
EyeSafe, a US-based company specializing in blue light mitigation solutions, says that LG's OLED panels are promoting eye health and better sleep, as the emit just 36% blue light, the lowest in the industry.
Lava's Agni 3 smartphone offers a 6.78" 120Hz 1200x2652 AMOLED display, and a small 1.74" 336x480 AMOLED display on the back side. The Agni 3 has a Mediatek Dimensity 7300X chipset, 8 GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage.
The Lava Agni 3 will ship soon starting at around $250 in India.
OLED TVs offer excellent image quality, outperforming LCDs with superb contrast, excellent and vivid color reproduction and fast refresh rates. In addition, OLEDs enable thin and efficient TVs. OLED TV production has been increasing up until a year ago, reaching a potential capacity of around 10 million units. This is impressive, but considering the entire global TV market that amounts to around 250 million units, OLEDs represent only around 2.5% of the total market (it is important to note that OLEDs tend to be produced in large sizes and carry a much higher average selling price compared to LCDs).
But OLED TV production capacity growth has declined in recent years. In this article we will shortly detail the history of OLED TV production, and look at potential paths towards increased penetration in the future. More details and into the future of OLED technologies and OLED TVs is included in the OLED Toolbox.
A bit of history: in 2013, both Samsung and LGD started producing OLED TV panels. Samsung chose the straightforward RGB side-by-side architecture, in which there are three sub-pixels, with red, green and blue OLED emitters. LG chose its own WRGB (or WOLED) architecture (the IP was acquired from Kodak in 2009) which uses four white OLED subpixels (made from yellow and blue OLED subpixels). Both companies released 55" FHD OLED TVs, priced at over $10,000 per unit. It soon became clear that Samsung's approach was not scalable, while LGD managed to enter mass production quickly and reduce prices dramatically within a few years to compete with the dominant LCD TV technology.
