Samsung will launch OLED TVs with LG panels
It was reported earlier this year that Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display were in a dispute over the pricing of QD-OLED panels, which also involved a price comparison with LG’s W-OLED panels. With the launch of the S95B last month, the dispute over Samsung’s QD-OLED panels seems to have come to an end. However, if Samsung wants to go further with OLED TVs, it needs to make more efforts.
According to The Elec, some industry analysts expect Samsung to start selling OLED TVs with LG panels in September this year. LG’s output of W-OLED panels this year is 11.2 million, of which Samsung will purchase 1 million to 1.5 million, Sony will purchase 1.7 million, and LG will use about 7 million.
Image: Samsung
It was reported last year that Samsung originally planned to purchase 2 million W-OLED panels from LG in 2022, but due to the lack of agreement on the price, the deadline was delayed and the purchase volume was reduced. Some analysts pointed out that Samsung needs to purchase at least 6.75 million OLED panels every year to be competitive in the OLED TV market, which is equivalent to 15% of Samsung’s total annual TV shipments of 45 million units.
In addition to sourcing W-OLED panels from LG, The Elec said that Samsung has started developing “thinner and curled” QD-OLEDs. Samsung recently launched a new development project with the goal of reducing the number of glass substrates used in QD-OLED panels from two layers to one. All along, various sources of information have pointed out that Samsung’s QD-OLED is more complex in the process than LG’s W-OLED, so the cost is also higher.
