OLED TV

According to reports from Korea, three former senior researchers at LG Display are accused of passing OLED trade secrets to a Chinese panel maker. The Seoul District Prosecutor office says that the there researchers took photos of designs at LGD's Guangzhou factor in 2021 and 2022, related to large-area WOLED panel production processes.

One of the suspects started working for a large China-based display company in 2021, and he allegedly colluded with a former LG Display employee to steal large-scale OLED panel mass production technology.

According to DSCC, OLED panel shipments increased 50% in the second quarter of 2024, compared to the second quarter of 2023. Compared to the previous quarter, shipments increased 13%. 

DSCC says that OLED tablet shipments increased 356% in the quarter compared to last year (led by Apple's adoption of AMOLEDs in its iPad Pro devices). OLED smartphone spanel shipments also 49%, while OLED TV panel shipments increased 30% from 2023.

LG Display is showing its latest OLED displays at the K-Display 2024 trade show, in Seoul. You can see LG's large-area OLED TVs, gaming monitors, automotive OLEDs and more.

All of these displays have been shown before, but this video is still a nice demonstration of LGD's latest OLED technologies.

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.

Seoul's Kookmin University researchers concluded a clinical study to verify the impact of TV panels of sleep, measuring the levels of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin in 40 adult men and women divided into groups watching the same content on either LCD or LG's WOLED TVs.

The researcher found that melatonin secretion fell 2.7% over two hours for the LCD group and it increased 8.1% in the OLED TV group. Melatonin rises in the evening to prepare the body for sleep, but the blue light emitted from displays disturbs the melatonin secretion as it confuses the body. As LCDs emit about twice as much blue light as OLEDs, it is not a surprise they have this effect on melatonin levels.

According to Omdia, sales of OLED panels in sizes over 9-inch (the company refers to these as Large Area Displays) will increase 124.6% in 2024. In 2023, the market contracted 25.7%, with the only exception being OLED monitor panels that grew in shipments.

In 2024, Omdia says that all application areas will see an increase in shipments - TVs, monitors, tablets and laptops. Only the company's "other" category will see a decrease in sales. In particular, tablet OLED shipments are projected to increase by 294% compared to 2023, largely due to Apple's adoption of OLEDs in the 2024 iPad Pro tablets. Laptop OLED sales will increase 152.6%, and monitors OLEDs will increase 139.9%. Finally, OLED TV panel shipments will increase 34.8%.

DSCC says that the AMOLED industry (mainly smartphones and IT applications) is still in oversupply, and this will remain so until 2028 - but demand is expected to increase faster than capacity and so the oversupply will gradually decline to 2028.

Regarding OLED TVs, demand will increase and fab utilization will improve - but in this market DSCC also sees an oversupply situation to 2028 at least (a surplus of 22% in 2028).

DSCC says OLED revenues are expected to grow 12% in 2024 and reach $44 billion. OLED panel shipments will grow 18% in 2024. The fastest growing OLED market segments are tablets and monitors.

OLED tablet panel shipments will increase 202% in 2024, and this will result in a 632% increase in revenues, driven mostly by Appe's first adoption of OLED panels in its 13" and 11.1" iPad Pro tablets. OLED monitors will grow slower, but still impressively - 80% in shipments, and 45% in revenues.

Collins Aerospace, and Panasonic Avionics Corporation have co-developed a next-generation business class suite, called MAYA, which combines the two cmoapnies expertise in design, technology development and integration into a singular integrated solution.

The MAYA suite's centerpiece is a 45-inch curved 4K OLED display, which according to the two companies, provide "users with unprecedented immersion, customization and feature rich personalized viewing experiences". The suite is packed with lot's more technology, of course, and it utilizes recycled, reusable and plant-based materials along with a composite structures to reduce production waste.

Earlier in 2024, Panasonic unveiled two new OLED TVs, the Z95A and Z93A, its flagship OLED TVs for 2024. Now Panasonic announced three new OLED TVs, which makes its 2024 OLED offering quite robust.

The Z90A OLED TV is similar to the flagship Z95A, but its WOLED panels do not use MLA. The Z90A, available in 65, 55, 48 and 42-inch sizes, offers HCX AI Mk II processor and gaming, and a built-in soundbar. The Z85A is offered with 55-inch and 65-inch only, with lower-end WOLED panels (120Hz rather than 144Hz). Finally, the entry-level Z80A, also in 55- and 65-inch sizes, offer the same 120Hz 4K WOLED panels, but has an older version of Panasonic's HCX Pro AI Processor.