LG Electronics will release a 77” ultra OLED TV early in the New Year.
According to the industry on the 23rd, LGE will release an ultra OLED TV applied with a 77” 4K ultra high-definition (UHD) resolution OLED panel in January or February in the New Year. This is the company’s second UHD OLED TV model since a 65” model released in August. It is forecast that the price will be set around KRW 30 million. Originally, LGE had planned to release this product within the year. However, it postponed the date to the New Year because release at the yearend as a ‘2014 model’ may exert negative impacts on the sales in the New Year.
With this, LGE increased its OLED TV lineup to the 65” and 77” (UHD) models as well as a 55” (full HD or below). LGE also plans to release a 55” OLED TV in UHD resolution.
LGE’s entire OLED TV lineup will be exhibited at the ‘CES 2015,’ the world’s largest home appliances fair to be held in Las Vegas, U.S. early in the New Year. The company is also promoting to release a distribution model. LGE’s strategy is to reduce the price burden at the same time as widening the OLED TV choice for customers. For the distribution model, some functions will be excluded. However, LGE has set out a policy not to release any OLED TVs that are smaller than the current models.
“The size of TV display is continuously increasing. In addition, large screens are suitable for enjoying the OLED TV picture quality properly,” explained a LGE insider. Accordingly, it will be difficult to find OLED TVs smaller than 50” next year.
In line with the lineup expansion, LGE will start an aggressive OLED TV marketing next year. The company considers overseas media’s favorable comments about its OLED TVs as of late an opportunity factor. In particular, LGE will accelerate competition against quantum dot (QD) TVs to be released in a large number next year by putting on display the existing ‘UHD LED TV’ applied with a LCD panel together with a ‘QD UHD LED TV’ and the ultra OLED TV applied with an OLED panel side by side. This strategy is aimed at highlighting the superiority of OLED TV in terms of picture quality despite the relatively higher price.
According to a market surveyor Display Search, the QD TV forwarding volume next year will be 1.95 million and OLED TV forwarding volume will be approximately 1 million, which is around half that of QD TV. “OLED TV provides a far superior picture quality than LCD TV,” said the LGE insider. “We will publicize this point, and thus will lead the premium market.”
Kim Joon-bae | joon@etnews.com
