LG Display, the display panel division, is planning to more than triple its production of OLED TV panels from 3 million last year to 10 million in 2021. It will also start production of 48-inch 4K OLED and smaller 8K OLED panels, according to a report by OLED-Info.com.

The future of LG Display’s OLED
Samsung is contemplating a return to the OLED TV market but so far LG Display remains the sole supplier of OLED TV panels on a mass scale. As such, the company’s plans give us a rough idea of what to expect in future high-end TVs from LG, Sony, Panasonic, Philips, and others.

At this week’s OLED Korea conference, LG Display detailed its future plans saying that it expects to increase OLED TV panel production from 3 million last year to 4 million this year as its new factory in Guangzhou, China, becomes operational. It expects to increase production further to 7 million in 2020 and 10 million in 2021.


  Photo: OLED-Info.com


To help expand the market, LG Display will start producing a 48-inch 4K OLED panel as well as 77- and 65-inch 8K OLED panels. The timeframe for production of the 48-inch 4K panel was not announced but the company has previously hinted that it may happen in late 2019 or 2020.

Lastly, LG Display is hoping to establish “new platforms” with its wallpaper, crystal sound, rollable, and transparent OLED panels. LG Electronics is currently selling TVs based on the wallpaper panel and will introduce a rollable TV later this year, while Sony is selling TVs based on the crystal sound platform.

221 million TVs were sold globally last year, according to IHS Markit, and OLED remains a high-end niche, with LCD making up the majority of the market. OLED TVs are still relatively expensive but the company has on several occasions reiterated that its goal is to take the technology mainstream. In the coming years, OLED may face increased competition from novel display technologies such as microLED and QD-LED. Samsung began touting microLED TVs last year at CES.

- Source: OLED-Info.com