LG picks fight with Samsung over smart displays

Challenge appears to be diversionary effort for slipping mobile phone business

By Kim Yoo-chul

LG Electronics appears to be prolonging its fight against Samsung Electronics going through LG Display, firing a salvo at smart devices.

For smart products, content and hardware technology are important for faster download speed but as critical is viewing quality.

That is where LG wants to take its fight. The firm has successfully fought a war with Samsung over 3D technology.

But it remains to be seen how well LG can manage the latest round. By all indications, the tactics look increasingly like an attempt to divert attention from its dismal performance on smartphones, the current make-or-break factor for electronics firms.

Samsung is using its in-house organic LED or OLED display-making technology for all Galaxy-branded smartphones by insisting that OLEDs promise to realize natural images as they emit their own light and feature several appealing factors.

LG Display believes its advanced high-performance in-plane switching (AH-IPS) LCD technology is better than Samsung’s OLED in terms of picture quality, color accuracy and power consumption.

LG’s AH-IPS LCD displays are being used in Apple’s popular i-branded products such as iPhones and iPads. The recently-released Apple iPhone 4S is also using LG’s display technology.

The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs mentioned LG LCD as ``Retina Display’’ as the viewing quality of LG’s LCDs reached the level of human retinas in distinguishing pixels.

``Amid a big migration towards long-term evolution (LTE), which is much faster in data processing than conventional 3G mobile technology, consumers have begun to understand the significance of viewing quality,’’ said Yeo Sang-deog, head of LG Display’s Mobile OLED division, in a press conference held at a Seoul hotel, Monday.

The executive identified clarity, readability and sharpness as the key factors for displays and claimed its AH-IPS flat-screens are better positioned than OLEDs citing research and surveys on consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, China and even South Korea.

Yeo said its AH-IPS LCDs already surpass 300 pixels-per-inch (PPI), while Samsung’s OLED screens are still at 270 PPI.

Resolution is usually decided by the total number of pixels whereas image crispness is measured by PPI, which commonly refers to pixel density per unit area.

The ultra high resolution technology used by AH-IPS has a greater number of pixels than the PPI that can be recognized by the human eye at a typical distance.

This makes it more difficult for the naked eye to distinguish each individual pixel, thus making the image sharper, said the LG executive. Yeo clarified his company will not additionally invest in OLED.

LG Electronics will use the LG Display-developed LCDs to its strategic Optimus LTE smartphones, it said in the event.

The latest display-feud comes after LG was involved in an intense fight with Samsung over 3D technology.

A few months ago, LG Display chief executive Kwon Young-soo said its in-house film patterned retarder or FPR 3D technology has untouchable merits over Samsung’s battery-powered 3D technology in pricing, eye-fatigue and comfort, upsetting Samsung.

``The demand for AH-IPS LCD panels will secure half the entire smartphone market next year, because we are seeing more market players move to AH-IPS LCDs,’’ said Kwon.

``Attracted by such advantages, Japan’s Sharp and Taiwan’s CMI have already started to boost the output of AH-IPS flat-screens, which we see a positive sign for market expansion.’’

Strategy Analytics (SA), a market research firm, expects the demand for smartphones next year will reach 350 million with Apple and Samsung leading the way.

LG Display is being asked to come up with new cash-creating ideas amid the continued downturn in the global LCD industry, hit by the debt crisis by Europe and a slowed economic recovery in the United States.

The LCD industry is cyclical and highly-volatile according to macroeconomic situations because consumers usually delay their plans either to upgrade or buy digital gadgets after the economy falls into trouble.

LCDs are used in everything from handsets to television sets.

Samsung Electronics is a major supplier of OLED screens and is controlling the entire global OLED market mainly thanks to the huge popularity of its Galaxy S smartphones.