South Korean local media ETNews reported that Samsung's planned Galaxy A2019 product line will be re-installed on some LCD LCD screens. Among them, A30/40/70/80 will use AMOLED screen, A50/60 will use LCD screen.
Since 2011, Samsung has systematically shut down the LCD screen production line and turned its main force into the production of OLED and AMOLED screens. Samsung's mobile phones released in recent years have almost all adopted OLED and AMOLED screens with more "future". Now, Samsung has occupied more than 90% of the AMOLED market and 96.5% of the OLED market. Nowadays, the initiative to reduce the new mobile phone screen configuration from OLED to LCD, Samsung's move is surprising.
According to ETNews analysis, the main reason for Samsung to abandon OLED screens is cost. The moderately curved OLED flexible screen display technology has the advantages of self-illumination, wide viewing angle, almost infinite contrast, low power consumption, and extremely high reaction speed. However, under the same size, the procurement cost of the OLED flexible screen is almost twice as high as that of the LCD screen. This has also led to high prices for mobile phone products using OLED screens.
"The new GalaxyA series for LCD screens has a stronger price competitive advantage in the face of Chinese mobile phone brands," ETNews commented.
According to data from five market research organizations such as IDC, global smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2018 exceeded Apple for the first time, up 40% year-on-year, making it the world's second-largest smartphone maker, just behind Samsung. Although Samsung is still in the first place, its market share has gradually declined, shipments have decreased by 8% year-on-year, and exports have gradually decreased.
Samsung's abandonment of OLED screens is just a microcosm of the industry's micro. Apple has been using the LCD technology from the first generation iPhone to the iPhone 8, and the OLED technology has been used since the iPhone X. In 2016, Apple and Samsung reached an order for the supply of 100 million OLED screens. In 2017, an additional 60 million OLED screens were added. Apple's 160 million OLED screens purchased from Samsung for iPhone X totaled $11.3 billion.
Apple's large investment has been seen as a hope for the revitalization of the OLED industry, but the hardship of the product itself has not been resolved. In addition to being too expensive, there are problems with quality. For example, the iPhone 4 uses the "burnin" problem that occurs after the screen - after the new image is displayed on the screen, the previous display will "stick" to the screen. This phenomenon occurs when the image is still for a long time, the contrast of the picture is strong, or a certain still picture is played for a long time, such as a standby screen saver.
Apple has to advise users to solve the problem through very primitive means, such as using automatic brightness adjustment, setting up iPhone X to turn off the display when not in use, avoiding displaying still images at maximum brightness for a long time.
Even worse, the iPhone X is not as popular as expected, which makes the strong industry pull that OLED originally expected to be the end of power. In March of this year, Bloomberg article said that the high price of iPhone X drove Apple's revenue, but the overall sales of the iPhone was not as good as last year. The number of OLED screens Samsung supplies to Apple is actually only half of what is expected.
Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that major manufacturers of OLEDs have begun to consider reducing production and price cuts.
Among the new iPhone series released this year, the cheap version of the iPhone XR has been used back to the LCD screen. Moreover, Apple has achieved the same effect as the OLED by bending the screen to reduce the bottom border on the LCD screen. Although the LCD screen called the Liquid Retina HD display does not have the same pixel density as the OLED, it is more realistic than the OLED in terms of color reproduction.
The benefits of OLEDs are color contrast and pure black, and the LCD still shines when displaying black due to the principle. However, the iPhone XR's Liquid Ritina LCD screen is still dark enough to be dark after it is extinguished.
In addition, the MicroLED screen, also known as the new generation of LED technology, is gradually becoming an object of interest to Apple.
Like the OLED, the MicroLED is made up of light-emitting diodes. This means that both are screens of "self-illuminating" technology. Each of the red, green, and blue sub-pixels will illuminate by itself, unlike LCD screens that require a dedicated backlight. Therefore, the MicroLED display can provide the same contrast and color performance as the OLED, and can be kept thin and light in production.
Apple has been researching MicroLED technology for some time. As early as 2014, Apple acquired LuxVue, which specializes in developing this technology. In March of this year, Bloomberg News said that Apple is investing heavily in MicroLED display technology, and in a secret factory near its headquarters, a small number of MicroLED screens were produced for testing purposes, project code T159.
