OLED is an emerging display technology that uses thin films of organic materials to make efficient, thin and high quality displays. OLED panels can made flexible, rollable and transparent. Korea's LG is at the forefront of OLED development and production - as the world's leading OLED TV producer and a leading developer of flexible OLED for smartphones, wearables, automotive and more. LG's subsidiary LG Display is responsible for OLED R&D and panel production, while LG Electronics produces and markets OLED TVs.
LG OLED TVs
LG Display is the world's leading OLED TV panel producer, and LG Electronics is its largest customer - although LGD also supplies OLED panels to other companies including including Panasonic, Sony, Philips, Loewe, JVC, Hisense, Konka and others. OLED TVs are considered the world's best TVs, offering the best image quality. LG makes a wide range of OLED TV panels, ranging from 42-inch to 97-inch, including bendable solutions and even a rollable 65" TV.
While the basic OLED TV design uses RGB OLED sub-pixels to create each 'pixel' (what is referred to as direct emission OLED, the design used in mobile OLED displays used in Samsung's and Apple's smartphones, for example), LG Display opted for a different OLED TV design. The so-called WRGB (or WOLED-CF) architecture uses four white OLED subpixels with color filters on top (hence W+RBG). The WRGB technology (developed by Kodak and now owned by LG Display) is much easier to produce and scale-up, even though it has some technical disadvantages - and it is the technology that enabled LG to be the first company to actually produce commercial OLED TV panels.
LG Flexible OLEDs
LG currently produces flexible OLEDs (branded as pOLEDs), for both wearable devices and smartphones. LG is the leading supplier of AMOLED displays for Apple's Watch smartwatch and it also supplies OLED displays for smartphones. Click here for more information on LG's pOLED displays and its production capabilities.
LG is also the world's leading automotive OLED producer, and is already supplying flexible OLEDs to Cadillac, Mercedes, and others.
LG Transparent OLEDs
LG has been working on transparent OLEDs for many years. In 2014 LGD unveiled a 18" transparent OLED prototype, and later in 2016 LGD demonstrated transparent 55" FHD AMOLED display prototypes. In 2019, the company started commercial production of 55" FHD transparent OLEDs, finding small markets in signage, commercial, mobility and more.
Further reading
The latest LG OLED news:
LG Display explains why OLED displays are healthier for your eyes
LG Display published a nice video that explains the hazards of exposure to blue light in displays:
The video discusses how blue light effects our sleep and can create sleep disruption and other problems including depression, how it causes dry eyes and eye strain.
Motorola unveils a new bendable phone concept based on an LGD pOLED display
Motorola has demonstrated a new concept phone design, which they refer to as a Adaptive Display Concept. This is a smart bendable phone, that sports a 6.9" FHD+ (2220x1080) flexible AMOLED display produced by LG Display.
The adaptive display concept can be adjusted from a standard Android phone experience in a flat position to being wrapped for a wrist-worn experience or positioned in several stand modes.
LG Display reports its financial results for Q3 2023, expects to return to profitability next quarter
LGD reported its financial results for Q3 2023, saying that revenues were almost flat from last quarter as the industry faces an intense inventory correction and demand is slow to recover.
LGD's revenues were 4.785 trillion Won (around $3.5 billion USD) with an operating loss of 662 billion Won (or around $490 million USD).
TrendForce: over a million OLED monitors to ship in 2024
TrendForce says that 508,000 OLED monitors will ship in 2023, up 323% from 2022. The market will continue to grow at a fast pace, to over a million shipments in 2024.
In 2024, TrendForce sees LG and Samsung both launching new OLED panels for the monitor market, which will help to expand the market. TrendForce further says that at the end of 2023, Samsung Electronics and LGE both hold a market share of almost 30%, Dell holds a market share of around 20% and Asus of nearly 10%.
LG Display and LG Chem developed new OLED dopant materials
LG Display announced that it has developed new OLED "p-Dopant" materials, in collaboration with LG Chem. The two companies have been working together for around 10 years, and they say that the new developed material matches the efficiency and performance of its currently-used materials imported into Korea.
LG Display already committed to use the new materials in both its large-area WOLED production lines and the small and medium mobile AMOLED lines.
UBI: The OLED IT panel market will grow at a CAGR of 41% to reach 31 million units by 2027
UBI Research estimates that 7.9 million AMOLED displays for IT applications (tablets, notebooks and monitors) will ship in 2023, growing to 31 million by 2027 (a CAGR of 41%). Apple's adoption of OLED screens starting in 2024 will fuel much of the demand.
OLED makers, led by Samsung, LG, BOE and Visionox are all expected to start producing IT OLED panels in existing 6-Gen production lines, and companies are also planning to construct new dedicated 8.5-Gen lines for IT applications.
QD-OLED TVs win the 2023 4K Value Electronics TV display shootout
Value Electronics hosted their annual TV shootout, checking several high-end TVs to see which model provides the best images. The TVs were professionally calibrated, and tested one next to the other. In total, Value Electronics' shootout featured 6 65" 4K TVs - 3 OLEDs and 3 MiniLED LCD. IN the 8K shootout, there were 3 TVs, from Samsung, Sony and LG. As in previous years, OLED TVs were crowned the "King of TVs", in both the 4K and 8K categories.
For the 4K TV shootout, the best TV in the shootout was Sony's A95L QD-OLED TV. The runner-ups were Samsung's S95C (another QD-OLED TV) and LG's G3 OLED (with an LGD WOLED Panel). The 8K shootout's winner was LG's Z2 WOLED TV.
Rosen Aviation to introduce 97-inch OLED displays in its VIP aircraft interior design
Aviation display technology specialist Rosen Aviation is increasing its line of high-end OLED displays, and is set to introduce a 97-inch WOLED panel, the biggest ever display in an aircraft cabin.
Rosen Aviation - future VIP cabin design concept
Rosen Aviation's 97" OLED is set to receive the supplemental type certificate for a VIP aircraft by the end of 2023. Rosen has already signed up its first customer. Rosen says that beyond the exception OLED display quality, this display is very lightweight compared to a comparable LED LCD solution.
LG Display starts producing 17" tandem foldable laptop OLED displays
LG Display announced that it has started to mass produce 17" 2560x1920 foldable OLED laptop displays. LGD applied a tandem stack architecture, to increase the lifetime of the OLED displays, to make it suitable for the demands of laptop use.
It is likely that the recently announced HP Spectre Foldable PC uses LG's new panels.
DSCC: the OLED market will decline 13% in 2023, growth to resume in 2024
DSCC estimates that OLED revenues in 2023 will be $36.1 billion - down 13% from last year. Just a few months ago DSCC's forecast for 2023 was $38.9 billion. This is the second year that the OLED market is contracting. In terms of shipments, there will be a 5% decrease in 2023. Looking forward to 2024, DSCC sees the market starting to recover, as demand for IT displays, TVs and smartphones will increase.
Looking at specific markets in 2023, DSCC says that OLED smartphone shipments will remain flat, but will drop 11% in revenues - as the demand for higher-end flexible displays is lower than in 2022. The only positive is the foldable display market, where shipments will increase 33% in 2023 compared to last year. 2023 also experiences a big drop in demand for OLED TVs - DSCC sees shipments declining 31% in 2023. The same goes for laptop OLEDs - a 32% decrease in sales in 2023.
