LG OLED company spotlight

LG Display announced that it has developed world's first OLED gaming monitor panel with a switchable refresh rate and resolution. The company already mass producing this panel and will now aim to accelerate its market adoption and expects the first product to use this panel to arrive soon from LG Electronics, and other global gaming brands.

The new panel is 31.5" in size, and allows users to choose between two modes - high refresh rate more (480Hz and FHD) and high resolution mode (4K, 240Hz). The high refresh mode is aimed towards games in which speed is particularly important, such as first-person shooter (FPS) or racing games. The higher-resolution mode is more suitable for watching movies or 4K content. 

Sony announced its 2024 TV lineup, and interestingly, the top model (the Bravia 9) is a Mini-LED backlit QLED TV. The entry-level model (the Bravia 7) is also a QLED display, while the mid-range model, the Bravia 8, is based on LGD's WOLED panels.

The Bravia 8 offers 55-, 65- and 77 inch 4K WOLED panels, Sony's OLED Acoustic Surface Audio+ sound system, an upgraded XR Processor, and the creator calibration picture settings. Sony's 2024 TVs will launch in the summer of 2024.

According to a new report in Korea, LG Display aims to increase its OLED TV panel shipments to Samsung Electronics in 2024, and to reach almost 1 million units. 

Samsung has recently signed a five-year OLED TV panel supply agreement with LG Display, as the two Korean companies are increasing their collaboration to fend off competition from China. 

In 2019 Samsung Display announced its decision to invest $10.85 billion in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. A few years later, SDC started to produce panels in its first fab, mass producing TV and monitor QD-OLEDs. The company attracted several customers (Sony and Samsung Electronics for TV panels, and several companies for its monitors), and these displays have been very well received by the market.

Since 2022, Samsung has increased its production yields, and increased its production capacity, and today it produces around 40,000 substrates a month in its 8.5-Gen production line. Reviews of QD-OLED gaming monitors and TVs are very positive, with many analysts seeing QD-OLED as improving over LGD's WOLED panels in terms of image quality. 

But the reality at Samsung Display's QD-OLED division, is likely not so rosy. It seems that the technology is facing both market challenges and technology challenges - which may lead to a decision by Samsung to abandon it altogether. 

A report from Korea suggests that SDC has transferred around 500 of its engineers from its large-area OLED development division, or about 30% of them, to its divisions that focus on small and medium-sized AMOLED development.

Samsung tri-folding AMOLED prototype

According to the report, the main reason for SDC's change of priorities is due to the need to remain competitive with Chinese-based OLED makers that are offering OLED panels at low costs. Samsung estimates that it is ahead of its Chinese competitors by only a year or a year and half, and it is just a matter of time until Chinese companies catch up with South Korea makers (SDC and LGD).

According to UBI Research, the OLED tablet panel market is set to grow quickly, more than doubling between 2024 (12 million units expected) to 2028 (28.4 million). That's a CAGR of 24.1%.

UBI says that the market in 2023 was only 1.8 million panels - so growth in 2024 will be dramatic (almost 7X), mostly thanks to Apple's adoption of OLEDs in some of its iPad modules (expected to be announced next month). Samsung will produce 11" panels for Apple, while LGD will produce larger 12.9" panels. 

Omdia released its small and medium (9-inch and lower) AMOLED market share information for 2023, saying that even though Samsung's market share was lower than 50% for the first time, it stills leads the market by a large margin, with a 43% market share. 

Samsung is followed by BOE (15%), LG Display (10%), Visionox (9%) and Tianma (8%). The total market reached 842 million units, a growth of 11% over 2022. Omdia says that the China-based OLED makers have been expanding their capacity and improving the quality of the produced panels, and are securing orders from domestic smartphone brands. 

China-based CEOLED launched a new interactive navigator robot, the RK-O55-LTPA, that sports a 55" transparent OLED display.

The robot is designed to create a new to engage with digital content, in public spaces. It offers a 8-hour battery life, intelligent navigation capabilities, and more. 

Towards the end of 2023, Seoul's Metropolitan Government has initiated a new pilot test at Myeong-dong Station that offers an AI-powered translation service for tourists that enables them to communicate with the subway staff through a transparent 55" LG OLED display.

The pilot was successful, and Seoul's Metro expanded the service to 11 stations, throughout Seoul. This is one of the first useful applications of transparent OLED displays, and it is great to see it expanded in Korea. We do not know whether there are any plans to roll out more such displays in Korea.

According to reports from Korea, LG Display requested Samsung Electronics to use its WOLED panels on the same tier as SDC's QD-OLED panels, and Samsung will use both panel technologies in its S90D OLED TV series. Samsung will likely not disclose the actual panel technology to the consumer, and will likely decide on the panel technology per region.

The Samsung S90D will offer 42-, 48-, 55-, 65-, 77- and 83-inch panels. SDC only makes 55, 65, and 77-inch QD-OLED panels, and so in these sizes both QD-OLEDs and WOLEDs will be used. For the 42-, 48- and 83- models Samsung will only use WOLEDs.