LG Display pledges to focus on OLED

LAS VEGAS ― LG Display, the world’s largest display-maker by sales, said Tuesday that it was committed to developing the organic light-emitting diode business this year despite challenges posed by rival products with cost efficiency and high-definition displays.

“If the year 2014 was a time when we prepared the ground for the growth of the OLED market, this year will be a time when the OLED TV business will take off,” said Han Sang-beom, the chief executive of LG Group’s display business unit, at a press briefing on Tuesday, the first day of the 2015 International CES, in Las Vegas.

Other display manufacturers, including those in China and Japan, are focusing on liquid crystal displays ― which are considered a mature technology with high production yield and cost efficiency.

Concerned over low yields and high prices, Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest TV-maker, is currently refraining from making additional investments in OLED and instead is focusing on LCD technology.

Samsung Electronics will spotlight LCD TVs and those fitted with quantum-dot backlights at the Las Vegas trade show.

LG Display, also a major supplier for California-based Apple, however, plans to increase its production capacity of eighth-generation OLED panels by 8,000 sheets per month to 34,000 ― amounting to 408,000 a year.

Having first churned out OLED TV displays in 2013, the LG affiliate has been expanding its partnership with global TV-makers including Skyworth and Konka from China.

An official from the display firm said that the degree to which the company could lower the prices of OLED displays would be a make-or-break factor.

Since OLED is self-emissive and does not require the use of backlights, it helps manufacturers lower production costs for TV sets and improve display picture quality.

The LG Display CEO also said the company would try to turn its plastic display businesses for smart watches, smartphones and vehicles into new growth engines.

The vehicle display market has grown over 10 percent annually since 2013 and is expected to gain further traction for many years down the road, according to the firm.

The LG affiliate supplies information displays to global car brands including Hyundai Motor Group, Toyota and General Motors.

Setting up its own booth at the Bellagio hotel in Vegas, the display-maker will boast its technological prowess with curved and variable OLED and LCD displays, smartphone displays curved on both sides, and transparent displays.

By Kim Young-won, Korea Herald correspondent(wone0102@heraldcorp.com)