Samsung internal strife over QD-OLED panel price

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At this year’s CES 2022 exhibition, the organizer CTA selected various participating technology products, among them, Samsung’s first QD-OLED TV (65-inch QD-DISPLAY TV) is one of the products that won the CES 2022 Innovative Product Award. This is the world’s first true RGB self-emissive quantum dot OLED display device, combining the contrast level of RGB OLED with the color and brightness of quantum dots for the ultimate visual effect.

It is a pity that Samsung did not publicly display this TV at the exhibition but chose to display Micro LED and Neo QLED TVs, and even the product photos of QD-OLED TVs were missing from the official award-winning product page of CES. On the contrary, Sony released the Bravia XR A95K equipped with a QD-OLED panel at CES 2022. At that time, some people speculated that Samsung may hesitate and sway in the strategic choice of panel and display technology.

According to The Elec, Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display in the dispute over QD-OLED panel price. According to the original plan, Samsung should launch its first QD-OLED TV in the middle of this year, with the first shipment of 500,000 units.

The rumored reason is that LG’s W-OLED panels are cheaper than QD-OLED panels, and Samsung Electronics doesn’t want to pay such a high panel price, hoping that Samsung Display will offer the same price as LG’s panels. It is unclear what the specific price of the QD-OLED panel is. A source said that the price of the QD-OLED panel provided by Samsung Display is $100 higher than that of LG’s W-OLED panel. In addition, Samsung Display plans to supply Dell computers with 30-inch QD-OLED panels for high-end monitors.

Due to the yield problem, Samsung stopped the research and development of large-scale OLED panels five years ago and turned its focus to Mini LED backlight and quantum dot technology. However, Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panels aroused the interest of Lee Jae-Yong, head of Samsung Group. After visiting the panel factory in 2018, he ordered a re-evaluation of the large-scale OLED panel business, and the development of QD-OLED panels was continued.