OLED Vs. GLED
As Samsung Electronics has released its new quantum-dot light-emitting diode (QLED) television, it has led to a confrontation for materials with LG Electronics, which is focusing on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) televisions, again. When Samsung Electronics showcased its new QLED TV, Kim Hyun-seok, president of Samsung Electronics' visual display (VD) business division said, “Further competition of visual quality is meaningless." In this regard, LG said, “The QLED is still a liquid crystal display (LCD) television.”
In regard to Samsung Electronics’ QLED TV unveiled on the previous day, LG Display Vice Chairman Han Sang-beom said during a press conference at the CES 2017, the world’s largest consumer tech show, in Las Vegas on January 4 (local time), “The only change in Samsung Electronics’ new product and previous one is luminance. In quantum dot, luminance can vary according to backlight. It is true that Samsung improved the efficiency of quantum dot, but it is a very small part of it. It is still a LCD panel.”
Han gave credit for the color reproduction range of quantum dot but he said, “We also have our own technology to realize white color solutions using IPS Nano.”
He also added, “There is no need to compared QLED, which is not a self-light-emitting device, with OLED, which is self-emissive. QLED and OLED are clearly two different displays.”
LG Display will expand its large OLED and small and mid-size plastic OLED (P-OLED) business in earnest this year. The company also plans to consolidate its lead in the global display market by strengthening its premium LCD strategy.
Han said, “We will double the production output of large OLED panels this year from last year and increase it more than two times every year by initiating the sixth-generation small and mid-size P-OLED panel production, changing our business structure to OLED.” To this end, LG Display integrated its TV business division and OLED TV business division.
In addition, LG Display set up the strategy to accelerate its pace to target the premium LCD market and expand its new growth engine business, such as automobile display and signage.
On the same day, the company unveiled what it calls the Crystal Sound OLED (CSO) technology for the first time in the world. The CSO technology is about building a sound production system inside an OLED panel by tapping into its structural advantage that it does not need a backlight. A television made of a CSO panel can produce more immerse sound compared to ones with external speakers which can only produce reflective sound, according to LG Display.
Through the technology, LG Display not only secured OLED design expandability, including wall paper TV, curved and flexible displays, but also suggested a possibility in OLED to upgrade sound system, which is a core function of TVs. The company showcased the 55-inch and 65-inch Crystal Sound OLED UHD TVs.
Meanwhile, regarding to a potential LCD panel supply deal with Samsung Electronics, Han said, “We are in talks in order to draw a big picture from a long term point of view.”