Han OLED struck TV or changed

The domestic color TV industry has seen a resurgence. Unlike LeTV, Xiaomi, TCL, and other domestic TVs, Korea’s LG and Samsung’s offensive weapon chose OLED.

The domestic color TV industry has seen a resurgence. Unlike LeTV, Xiaomi, TCL, and other domestic TVs, Korea’s LG and Samsung’s offensive weapon chose OLED. Last week, LG Electronics took the lead in publishing curved OLED TVs in China. On September 16, Samsung Electronics also followed suit. Both 55-inch OLED TVs have locked their pricing to less than 60,000 yuan, of which LG is quoted at 59999 yuan, and Samsung has settled on a price of 5,499 yuan.

In this regard, there are industry insiders can not help but scold, "When the color TV industry has changed to the next generation, the future of television will be replaced by OLED TV." However, is this true?

Korean OLED landing in China

"Millet and LeTV are just pure eyeball economics and marketing public relations strategies. In contrast, LG brings a strategic layout of new technologies, product-led, and OLED TV is precisely the domestic manufacturers can not currently Progressive.” Last week, LG Electronics insiders said in an interview with this reporter.

On September 13th, LG Electronics launched the first curved 55-inch OLED TV in the Chinese market in Beijing, and implemented a global unified price policy. The price is RMB 59,999, which is ten times more expensive than a LED TV of the same size.

“The future of OLED is very clear. This change in technology will increase the quality of life for consumers, and LG will also become a company that leads the entire industry.” Shen Wenfan, President and Chairman of LG Electronics China, told reporters .

It is reported that the LG's curved OLED TV was first introduced in Korea, followed by the US market, and China was the third. This shows that LG wants to seize the high-end market of China's color TV. Shen Wenfan revealed that "LG's overall strategic goal in the Chinese market is to enter the top three in the Chinese market within three years."

The reporter was informed that the production volume of LG 55-inch OLEDs was not large during the lead-in period. It is expected that 50-inch and 50-inch or more OLED TVs will begin full-scale production from the second half of 2014.

Coincidentally, September 16, Samsung Electronics also introduced a 55-inch curved OLED TV, although later than the LG release, but Samsung apparently secretly competing with competitors, will directly lower the price to 5,499 yuan, than the same TV with LG 5,000 yuan lower. According to reports, Samsung's curved OLED TV will officially land in domestic supermarkets by the end of September.

In the perspective of LG and Samsung-led Korean manufacturers, pushing OLED TVs in China means that the Chinese TV market has officially entered the OLED era. LG said that compared with traditional LCD panels, OLED panels do not require backlight drivers, and the contrast ratio is very high. The OLED panel presents a more vivid picture, thinner thickness, and more energy-saving. Samsung also emphasized that since OLEDs are organic materials and have their own plasticity, OLEDs are a prerequisite for implementing flexible screen technology.

OLED future market scale 3 billion US dollars

For the display industry, OLED is called the best technology to replace LED in the industry, and two Korean companies also released OLED TVs at the same time, fully demonstrating its emphasis on the future TV industry.

Industry analysts believe that from the CRT era to LCD, LED era, the domestic display industry has been lagging behind foreign brands, the next generation of display technology OLED surfaced, Japanese and South Korean companies are focusing on development, one step faster is obtained in the entire industry chain More interest value.

The reporter was informed that the first 8.5-generation WRGB OLED TV panel production line added by LG Investment will be located in Paju, South Korea, with an investment of approximately 706.3 billion won (approximately 4.06 billion yuan); and Samsung’s overall capital expenditure this year will reach 50.8 trillion. In Won, most of the investment budget will be applied to the relevant components of the OLED panel.

However, before Samsung also admitted to the media, "OLED TV market is still in its infancy," while also admitting that there is technical difficulty in the production of flexible screen ultra-high definition television.

However, this does not affect the layout of the two companies. According to Display Search, a professional panel research organization, the OLED TV market is expected to increase substantially in 2014. The market size will reach US$3 billion in 2015, which will become a driving force for the development of the high-end TV market.

On the other hand, domestic panel makers still do not have much movement in OLED, and they have opened a gap with foreign companies since the beginning.

Local vendors believe pushing OLEDs to be immature

“For the moment, the audience of OLED TVs is undoubtedly the top consumer group. The average consumer is totally unacceptable, and the price is the biggest threshold,” said a high-level personage of a domestic black-box manufacturer in an interview with this reporter.

Therefore, industry experts generally believe that the time is currently not ripe for Huaqiang to push OLEDs.

It is true that the price of 60,000 yuan is indeed still on the altar of television prices. The reporter learned that the prices of TVs of the same size in the market are generally between 6,000 yuan and 15,000 yuan. This is still accepted by first-tier cities. The second and third-tier cities are far below this price standard.

In response, Ye Honglin, the general manager of Changhong Multimedia Industry Group, bluntly stated that the price of OLED TVs is still falling down. The real substitution effect requires the price to drop to a certain extent, and the market demand begins to expand.

Skyworth spokesperson Li Congxiang also believes that Skyworth will still focus on ultra-high definition and smart TVs, OLED technology is not mature, high prices, low yield.

Liang Qichun, assistant president of TCL Corporation [0.87% Capital Research], also expressed the same opinion to this reporter. "The cost is too high, and OLED technology is only in the experimental stage."

However, it is worth noting that LG and Samsung’s OLED TVs are 30% lower than the previous industry’s estimated 80,000 yuan. At the beginning of the year, the price of a 55-inch OLED TV was still between 80,000 and 100,000 yuan.

Therefore, home appliance industry research expert Lu Jiebo believes that OLED TVs will have room for further decline in the future. If they fall below 15,000 yuan, then OLED TVs will probably kick LCD TVs out of the market.

OLED and LED technology will coexist for a long time

Indeed, at present OLED is far from reaching the point where it is very mature. The key to the high cost is the excessive production and production loss rate.

The reporter learned that because some barriers to mass production technology have still not been completely resolved, resulting in mass production of OLED products yield rate is too low, the average yield of small-size OLED panels is about 60%, while the average size of large-scale products The rate is only about 20%. The yield of 55-inch OLED panels is only single-digit, and its price is nearly 10 times that of LCD TVs of the same size.

Therefore, the cost issue also causes OLED panels to be difficult to become mainstream in the market for a short period of time. For a small-sized OLED display panel, it takes about 3-5 years to become mainstream; for a large size, the time may be longer, at least for more than 5 years.

Zhang Yu, vice president of BOE Technology, had previously reminded that in the future, if the price of OLED is reduced to 1.3-1.6 times the LCD screen price, explosive growth will occur. Zhang Yu told reporters that for a period of time, OLED and LED technology will coexist for a long time.

In this regard, LG Electronics did not place eggs in the same basket. Shen Wenfan also stated that “the preferences and needs of global consumers are not the same, so we cannot completely rely on a single technology. In the short term, LG will still Ultra-high-definition development at the same time, to observe the market trends and consumer response, and then decide which side to tilt in the future."

Similarly, Samsung is also pushing UHD TV at the same time.