LG, frontrunner in OLED TV, faces challenges from rivals

By Choi Sung-jin

Global home electronics makers are jumping into the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV business and expanding the market rapidly, industry sources said Friday.

The OLED TV market size is estimated to exceed $10 billion worldwide in 2019 with its share also expected to rise from the current 1 percent of the entire TV market to nearly 10 percent by then, they said.

Samsung Electronics will reportedly begin to market its products in 2018, and in Europe, Philips has just announced its entry into the business. In Asia, some Chinese makers are already releasing new products using OLED display panels made by LG Electronics, the front-runner in this business. Japanese makers, such as Panasonic and Sony, are also likely to announce their participation.

Before long, all of the world’s 10 major electronic makers will jump into the OLED TV fray, the sources said.

Philips announced in Brussels Thursday that the company would put to market its first OLED TV in the latter half of this year. At a demonstration, the Dutch electronics giant said it would market OLED TV sets made by its own technology, which will have better pictures, if a little more expensive, than LG’s products.

Currently, the most active players are a few Chinese makers. Skyworth began to market its OLED TV sets in 2014, and Changhong followed its example in 2015. Other major makers, such as High Sense, TCL and Haier, are also weighing their timing for entry. Skyworth, formerly the No. 2 home appliance maker in China, has emerged as the industry leader thanks to its success in the OLED TV business.

In Japan, Panasonic took the lead with its 4K OLED TV. Its biggest rival Sony made an even earlier start by marketing a 15-inch OLED TV back in 2010.

The growing interest in OLED TV is because it will dominate the next-generation TV market. OLED panels emit their own light when an electric current is passed through them, whereas cells in an LCD display require an external light source, like a giant backlight, for brightness. OLED is rated at around 1,000 (some say higher) times faster than a standard LED-backlit LCD panel.

According to market research company IHS, the OLED TV market is expected to expand to $10 billion by 2019, growing at an annual average rate of 144 percent between 2013 and 2019. The overall TV market may undergo contraction throughout the world but the OLED TV market will increase sharply to emerge as a new growth engine. Actually, the market, which remained at $43.58 million in 2013, soared to $1.3 billion last year. Its share in the TV market is expected to grow from 0.1 percent in 2014 to 3.8 percent this year and to 9.6 percent three years from now.

The OLED TV market provides a sharp contrast to the contraction of the existing LCD TV market. If Samsung joins the competition in earnest, the market will expand even more rapidly, the sources said.

Samsung officially is denying any plans to release OLED TV sets. “We are conducting research and development efforts in related technology but have no plan yet to produce and market OLED TVs,” a Samsung official said.

Industry watchers say, however, Samsung’s entry will be inevitable and that few can tell how the market landscape will change then. Currently, LG has 91 percent of market share, which is expected to shrink as the number of its competitors increases.