LG OLED appealing to global customers
An LG Electronics 65-inch curved 4K UHD 3D OLED smart television is on display at a Best Buy store in Las Vegas, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Yoon Sung-won
By Yoon Sung-won
LAS VEGAS ― LG Electronics’ organic light-emitting diode (OLED) television is expanding its presence in the United States slowly yet steadily.
At a Best Buy store here in Las Vegas, a television sales employee said the LG OLED televisions are drawing attention from U.S. customers with technological advancement.
“Customers here have just started to grasp the concept of the OLED and the benefits of this technology,” he said. “It produces more vivid, natural colors and makes black look darker with more contrast. At the same time, it is very slim because it does not use a lighting back panel. Such features are hard to miss.”
According to a data by market researcher Display Search, the mainstream of global flat-screen televisions is rapidly moving to the UHD television from full high-definition (FHD) products. It predicted that the UHD models will hold 43.4 percent of the entire market, outpacing 39.4 percent of FHD television by next year.
The sales employee said it is difficult to say that OLED televisions are sold as much as the 4K ultra high-definition (UHD) LED televisions as of now.
“Those the LG OLED televisions draw much attention from customers, the actual sales of them is currently in a relatively show pace,” he said. “But if one should buy an OLED television, this is the best and the only choice for the customer as the company has literally opened up the OLED segment for ordinary customers, which is not available in other brands such as Samsung Electronics and Sony.”
At the store, an LG Electronics 65-inch curved 4K UHD 3D OLED smart television was priced at $6,999.98. As the 4K OLED model has a multiple times bigger price tag compared with non-OLED 4K models, it seemed to need more price competitiveness to be an attractive choice.
“As of now, the prices of OLED televisions may not be persuasive enough to customers,” the employee said. “As the company is pushing for expanding the OLED lineup, customers will also have more option for OLED televisions.”
Last week, LG Electronics said at the IFA electronics fair in Germany that it will expand the OLED television lineup and boost the popularity of the products, aiming at expanding the global sales by five times in the second half, compared with the first half. It also launched cheaper OLED television in the Korean market and pledged to run more promotions in the global market.