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The OLED TV market led by LG Electronics is growing rapidly. Last year, LG Electronics’ annual OLED TV shipments exceeded 2 million units for the first time. The atmosphere is good again this year. It is predicted that twice as much as last year’s volume will be sold.
OLED TV that became a’filial product’
According to market research firm Omdia on the 21st, LG Electronics’ OLED TV shipments last year were 2.55 million units. The cumulative shipment also exceeded 8 million units. LG Electronics first launched its OLED products in 2013, and has exceeded 1 million units in annual shipments in 2017, four years later. After that, it took three years to break the 2 million wall. Last year, global OLED TV shipments were 365 million units. LG Electronics’ market share (based on volume) reaches 56%.
Shipments entered this year are on the rise. Omdia expected LG Electronics’ OLED TV shipments in the first quarter to be 759,000 units. It is observed that over 3 million units will be sold annually. The market outlook is more optimistic. Kiwoom Securities forecasted that LG Electronics’ OLED TV shipments as of the first quarter were more than twice that of the same period last year.
An official from LG Electronics said, “The proportion of OLED TVs in the entire TV market has already exceeded 9% based on the amount in the fourth quarter of last year.” It means that it is changing to a product that pays for the money.”
OLED TVs are expensive and profitable. The average selling price of OLED TVs sold in the global market last year was 2076 dollars (about 2.43 million won), which is nearly five times that of LCD TVs (428 dollars). The large 70-inch OLED TV has an average selling price of 5257 dollars (about 5.94 million won). This is the background of the steadily increasing operating profit of the HE business division of LG Electronics, where OLED TV is the main focus. The company explained that the proportion of products in the 70-inch range from 6.3% in 2019 increased to 13.7% last year, further strengthening the profit base.
Breathtakingly open to panel supply and demand
Until now, OLED TV companies have suffered from a lack of panels. LG Display, which supplies OLED panels virtually exclusively, did not meet the demand. This year, it is expected that the chronic panel supply and demand will be breathless. As LG Display’s Guangzhou plant in China is fully operational, the supply of panels from 4.5 million units last year is expected to increase to about 8 million units.
An official in the TV industry said, “OLED TV makers including LG Electronics see this year as the year of real competition when panel supply and demand is normally achieved,” and said, “The key is how much we can target the LCD TV market.”
OLED TVs have self-luminous displays in which organic compounds receive electric energy and emit light by themselves. The difference from LCD-based TVs is in the presence or absence of a backlight (backlight panel) that emits light. OLED TVs can realize natural colors because each pixel emits light by itself. The excellent viewing angle and contrast ratio are also considered as advantages of OLED products.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s number one TV industry, does not sell OLED TVs. Instead,’mini LED TV’, which maximizes color reproducibility by reducing the size of the LED entering the backlight, and’micro LED TV’, in which micro LEDs in micrometer (㎛) units emit light themselves, are being promoted as high-priced products. Kim Hyun-seok, head of Samsung Electronics’ CE division (President), said at the shareholders’ meeting on the 17th, “Competitor OLED is a very good technology, but we are constantly developing technologies that are comparable to that.”
Reporter Song Hyung-seok [email protected]
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