The world’s largest panel maker LG Display Co. will fast shift to the forward-looking organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and make OLED TV screens and plastic panels for mobile devices its mainstream output from 2018.

LG Display’s OLED output currently is entirely for large-screen TVs. Its local rival Samsung Display Co. takes up 96 percent of OLED market for small and mid-sized OLED panels for mobile devices because its sister set maker Samsung Electronics has been using OLED panels for its smartphone and mobile devices ahead of the pack.

About 90 percent of LG Display’s revenue still hinges on LCD, the mainstream whose prices have fallen sharply due to competitive expansion by Chinese rivals.

“We are slightly behind our major rival in term of investment in small and mid-sized OLED panel business and we will invest in the business with a big picture perspective,” Han Sang-beom, vice chairman and CEO of LG Display, said at a press conference held at the display panel maker’s Paju plant, north of Seoul, on Tuesday. In the mobile electronics sector, OLED technology is a “mega trend,” Han added.

“Panel producers have to make an investment based on demand from corporate customers,” Han said. LG’s major phone clients are LG Electronics Inc. and Apple Inc. that still use LCD as their panels.

“We will make long-term investments in small and mid-sized OLED panels upon demand,” he said. Apple reportedly is discussing with Samsung Display to receive OLED displays for next year’s series of iPhone.

LG Display is the only display panel maker in the world that supplies large-sized OLED panels for TVs. The company plans to produce plastic OLEDs for smaller panels.

The plastic OLED panel uses a substrate made of polyimide instead of a conventional glass substrate. It is flexible or even foldable and is used in Samsung Electronics’ flagship smartphone Galaxy S7 Edge. The flexible display is now the industry buzz after Samsung Electronics’ latest smartphone with a curved display became a big hit, leading other smartphone makers to rush to develop mobile devices with flexible displays.

LCD panel will remain as the company’s core business. “LCD still is the backbone business that is holding up LG Display,” he said. “We will continuously attract new customers by cutting production costs and developing new high-value products.”

Yeo Sang-duk, president and head of LG Display’s OLED division, also emphasized the importance of OLED, saying “OLED is the most optimized display in the (so-called) Display of Things” that is future technology along with artificial intelligence, robots, and the Internet of Things.

 

Source : pulsenews.co.kr

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