LG urged to work with global auto brands for profitability
By Yoon Sung-won
LG and Samsung will turn their attention to the automobile display industry and away from manufacturing television sets to boost profitability of their organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, Paul Gray said Tuesday.
Gray, principal analyst of the display industry at the global market research agency IHS, said LG Display should find new applications for OLED working with global automobile brands such as BMW, Audi and Tesla instead of settling for manufacturing televisions, which yield less returns for the company.
"Selling television sets is a terrible market for display makers. The pricing is very low and television sets last a long time. There are other things that you can do with OLEDs such as automotives," Gray said during the IFA Global Press Conference which began on April 17 and ran until yesterday in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China.
He said that because the display business for Apple's smartphone and tablets is flattening out, automotive and aerospace will be the most attractive applications for LG.
Gray said carmakers are increasingly using electronics on their dashboards, opening new market opportunities for the world's leading display makers.
"Carmakers want OLED. They want the idea of curving the display into the dashboard because the car looks cool with it," he said. "Those applications for OLED are far more valuable, and working with auto companies, they can secure stable business for three to five years as opposed to consumer electronics technology that just continues to be fickle. I think automotive will end up as the more attractive business."
Gray said Samsung Display will also look to the automotive display market to gain more from its OLED business whereas it has remained relatively lukewarm in the OLED television business.
"Samsung Display may also find better opportunities for OLED than just in television which is a tough business where nobody's profit is huge," he said.
The analyst said even if Samsung Display goes back to manufacturing OLED for television, the company is likely to do so just for flagship products.
"It sees the OLED television as a technology platform," he said. "As long as there are more interesting opportunities with OLED for their capacity and expertise in television, they will continue to keep one eye on OLED televisions."
Gray pointed out that LG Display may be more agile in turning from televisions to automobiles under its policy to do "what is right for the business rather than being vertically integrated with LG Electronics' applications." On the other hand, Samsung may need more time to fit itself into automotives because it has been managed with more vertical integration and is strongly tied into the main pipeline of Samsung Electronics.
During his briefing session on Tuesday, Gray said the advancement in display technologies has brought more pixels to the media, changing the industrial landscape.
"It's not just about technologies. The technology are opening up a new phase in the new media," the analyst said. "In the television industry, the trend demands more pixels and their qualitative change is speeding up. As more than 300 million 4K televisions are expected to penetrate into the market by 2019, over 1.4 million 8K televisions will also be distributed by then."
He also underlined that the high dynamic range (HDR) technology will bring significant benefits to the media, especially in content such as sports broadcasting.
Gray said such dramatic growth in the demand for high-quality displays have spurred about 11 display panel plants in China to operate eighth-, ninth- and tenth-generation manufacturing lines optimized for large screen televisions between 43 and 75 inches.
He said the 4K camera recording and virtual reality (VR) technologies, which are provided by smartphone makers, have led to explosive growth in personalized videos and the whole-new 360-degree storytelling experiences.
The analyst, however, pointed out that the VR technology is not expected to be at the center of the mainstream gaming industry anytime soon.
"VR is neither a bubble nor the next big thing," he said. "It is showing slow but solid growth in its niche position. In the long run, new VR technologies may appear and change prospects as new content production skills will be critical."
By Yoon Sung-won
LG and Samsung will turn their attention to the automobile display industry and away from manufacturing television sets to boost profitability of their organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, Paul Gray said Tuesday.
Gray, principal analyst of the display industry at the global market research agency IHS, said LG Display should find new applications for OLED working with global automobile brands such as BMW, Audi and Tesla instead of settling for manufacturing televisions, which yield less returns for the company.
"Selling television sets is a terrible market for display makers. The pricing is very low and television sets last a long time. There are other things that you can do with OLEDs such as automotives," Gray said during the IFA Global Press Conference which began on April 17 and ran until yesterday in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China.
He said that because the display business for Apple's smartphone and tablets is flattening out, automotive and aerospace will be the most attractive applications for LG.
Gray said carmakers are increasingly using electronics on their dashboards, opening new market opportunities for the world's leading display makers.
"Carmakers want OLED. They want the idea of curving the display into the dashboard because the car looks cool with it," he said. "Those applications for OLED are far more valuable, and working with auto companies, they can secure stable business for three to five years as opposed to consumer electronics technology that just continues to be fickle. I think automotive will end up as the more attractive business."
Gray said Samsung Display will also look to the automotive display market to gain more from its OLED business whereas it has remained relatively lukewarm in the OLED television business.
"Samsung Display may also find better opportunities for OLED than just in television which is a tough business where nobody's profit is huge," he said.
The analyst said even if Samsung Display goes back to manufacturing OLED for television, the company is likely to do so just for flagship products.
"It sees the OLED television as a technology platform," he said. "As long as there are more interesting opportunities with OLED for their capacity and expertise in television, they will continue to keep one eye on OLED televisions."
Gray pointed out that LG Display may be more agile in turning from televisions to automobiles under its policy to do "what is right for the business rather than being vertically integrated with LG Electronics' applications." On the other hand, Samsung may need more time to fit itself into automotives because it has been managed with more vertical integration and is strongly tied into the main pipeline of Samsung Electronics.
During his briefing session on Tuesday, Gray said the advancement in display technologies has brought more pixels to the media, changing the industrial landscape.
"It's not just about technologies. The technology are opening up a new phase in the new media," the analyst said. "In the television industry, the trend demands more pixels and their qualitative change is speeding up. As more than 300 million 4K televisions are expected to penetrate into the market by 2019, over 1.4 million 8K televisions will also be distributed by then."
He also underlined that the high dynamic range (HDR) technology will bring significant benefits to the media, especially in content such as sports broadcasting.
Gray said such dramatic growth in the demand for high-quality displays have spurred about 11 display panel plants in China to operate eighth-, ninth- and tenth-generation manufacturing lines optimized for large screen televisions between 43 and 75 inches.
He said the 4K camera recording and virtual reality (VR) technologies, which are provided by smartphone makers, have led to explosive growth in personalized videos and the whole-new 360-degree storytelling experiences.
The analyst, however, pointed out that the VR technology is not expected to be at the center of the mainstream gaming industry anytime soon.
"VR is neither a bubble nor the next big thing," he said. "It is showing slow but solid growth in its niche position. In the long run, new VR technologies may appear and change prospects as new content production skills will be critical."
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