LG Display, the world’s largest display maker by sales, is seeking to further strengthen its unrivaled leadership in organic light emitting diode, or OLED, claiming the technology would become a game-changer in the future display market.
OLED works without a backlight so it offers almost infinite contrast levels, high light-output, and no motion blur, uniformity or off-angle issues. It also allows thinner and lighter device styling compared to liquid crystal diode, or LCD.
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LG Electronics’ OLED TVs adorn the company’s exhibition booth at the IFA electronics trade show held in Berlin in September. LG Electronics |
LG Display, an OLED pioneer, has focused resources into the futuristic display technology, while other display and device makers are still sticking to LCD due to supply and pricing constraints.
The company also recently announced plans to invest more than 10 trillion won ($9 billion) into OLED by 2018, especially focusing on premium large and flexible products.
The company said it will diversify its larger product lineup, including thinner or transparent TV screens, while beefing up productions of smaller flexible OLED to target the soaring wearable device market.
The company currently operates two OLED manufacturing plants in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, with a combined production capacity of 34,000 eighth-generation OLED TV panels per month.
The company also plans to set up a new manufacturing line at its Gumi plant in North Gyeonggang Province for the production of the sixth-generation flexible OLED.
LG Display is also pinning high hopes on high-dynamic range, or HDR, which is widely seen as the next generation of home video content after 4K. The company plans to launch the world’s first HDR OLED TV within the year.
The company touted OLED as the perfect fit to enjoy HDR content due to the display technology’s perfect blackness.
The company has already doubled its OLED TV lineup this year, including new TVs with a 4-millimeter thickness.
More recently, other TV makers are increasingly joining the OLED bandwagon. LG Display predicts more players will elevate consumer awareness and expand the total market.
In July, the company set a new milestone as its large LCD and OLED panel production hit the 1.5 billion mark for the first time within the industry.
Large panels, those 9.1 inches or larger, are used for computer monitors, laptop computer screens and TVs. The 1.5 billion units are equivalent to 236,793,391 square meters of panels, the company said.
The company has focused about 3 trillion won every year to strengthen its market leadership.
In China, the company started operation of a new Guangzhou plant in July last year with aims to double the current production capacity of 60,000 units per month by next year.
According to market search firms DisplaySearch, LG Display has maintained its No. 1 position in large-panel shipments since 2009. Its global market share in the first quarter was 23.9 percent.
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)
