Samsung appears to have skipped OLED TVs to focus on LCD TVs in the short term and a new type of display technology referred to as QLED in the long term. Samsung is aiming to launch QLED TVs in 2019, according to Digitimes.

QLED TVs in 2019?
Samsung is currently selling souped-up LCD TVs enhanced with a quantum dot film layer between the LCD panel and the LED backlight. Next year, the company will replace the passive color filters in front of the liquid crystal pixels with a quantum dot color filter, according Digitimes.

Quantum dot LCD is a short-term strategy before moving to true “QLED” (quantum dot LED) displays that is a form of self-emitting display technology.

- “Samsung Electronics plans to begin production of QLED TVs in 2019. QLED TVs will have lower production cost and longer service life than OLED models. However, production of QLED TVs currently is faced with technological problems, mainly short service life of blue-color QD materials and how to precisely and evenly coat red, green, blue QD materials,” says Digitimes.


Samsung had to abandon OLED
LG and Samsung launched the first large-size OLED TVs in 2013 but Samsung had to abandon the project in 2014 due to low production yields.

Over the last three years, LG has managed to bring down production costs but OLED TVs are still expensive. Chinese companies such as TCL are also currently ramping up OLED TV panel production.

If the 2019 timeline is accurate that will give competitors, especially LG, time to refine OLED technology. By that time, the company will need several more years to reach mass-production scale and bring down costs. Samsung will also have to prove that QLED can match or surpass OLED.

Samsung has not yet exhibited a QLED TV prototype. The first OLED prototypes were demonstrated over a decade before the first consumer product launched, and LG demonstrated a 15-inch OLED TV in 2009 – four years before it launched a 55-inch model.

- Source: Digitimes