More and more businesses are joining LG’s OLED force as Germany’s TV manufacturer called Metz has released OLED TVs followed by another Germany TV manufacturer called Loewe. As there are more businesses that are releasing OLED TVs, LG that is putting out OLED TVs as its next-generation’s major products is highly encouraged. On the other hand, industries are interested on how Samsung, which is the number 1 TV manufacturer in the world that is based on Quantum-Dot TVs, will react to this movement.
According to an industry on the 18th, Metz that was bought out by China’s TV manufacturer called Skyworth has released OLED TVs. It has been a week since Loewe made announcement that it will be producing OLED TVs. Now there are 10 TV manufacturers in the world that are producing OLED TVs and they are Panasonic, KONKA, Phillips and others.
It is heard that OLED TVs by Metz will have UHD resolution and support HDR (High-Dynamic Range).
LG Electronics, which is pushing OLED as its next-generation TVs, is welcoming businesses that are producing OLED TVs since OLED TV markets will grow as there are more OLED TV manufacturers. LG Display, which is producing OLED panels, is also benefiting from increase in demands for OLED panels.
“All businesses that are planning to release OLED TVs soon are located in Europe.” said a representative for LG Electronics. “As premium TV manufacturers such as Bang-Olufsen, Loewe, Metz and others are producing OLED TVs, premium image of ‘OLED TV’ will become stronger.”
Industries are predicting that OLED TV markets will grow faster as there are more businesses that are producing OLED TVs. As sizeable economy is formed from expansion of OLED TV markets, price of panels can decrease.
“As now there are 10 businesses that are producing OLED TVs, global TV makers are preparing for ‘post-LCD’.” said a representative for a TV industry.
Growth of OLED TV markets is also encouraging. According to a market research company called IHS, OLED TV markets are going to grow very rapidly as their annual average growth rate from 2013, which was the year when OLED TVs were first released, to 2020 will almost reach 180%.
Global TV markets are practically divided by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. Market shares of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics in major countries such as the U.S. and Europe that demand TVs almost reach 50%. Although they practically own global TV markets, technologies that they use to produce TVs are different. While Samsung Electronics is producing LCD-based Quantum-Dot display TVs, LG Electronics is producing OLED TVs.
Some industries predict that it will be hard for LG Electronics to change dynamics of overall TV markets since size of annual production by businesses that are joining forces with LG Electronics is small. Actually Loewe is producing about 100,000 TVs annually and this value is extremely insignificant when annual output of TVs is 230 million globally.
Samsung Electronics had been the number 1 TV seller until last year for 10 years in a row. Samsung Electronics does not have any plans yet to release OLED TVs because they cannot overcome burn-in problem which has been a problem for long period of time. Samsung Electronics is planning to expand its business based on Quantum-Dot and eventually jump towards QLED (OLED + Quantum-Dot).
“Although it is meaningful that there are more businesses that are producing OLED TVs, it won’t have too much effect since output of TVs by Metz or Loewe is insignificant towards overall TV markets.” said a representative for Samsung Electronics. “It will be hard for LG Electronics to control TV markets.”
Staff Reporter Jung, Yeongil | jung01@etnews.com
