Boe, China's largest panel maker, is reportedly shifting from small and medium-sized OLeds for smartphones to THE OLED market for TVS. If China advances in the TV market with low-cost OLED panels, the OLED competitiveness of Korean companies such as LG Display will be shaken.
Boe is preparing to commercialize large OLED panels for TVS, market research firm DSCC said in a recent report on June 6. Boe is reportedly preparing to commercialize five TV OLED sizes ranging from 55 to 95 inches.
Last month, boe unexpectedly unveiled a 95-inch 8K (7680×4320) OLED panel at the world's largest display show in California, with a maximum brightness of 800 nits and a high refresh rate of 120Hz. The panel adopts W (white) and OLED technology, which is the same as LG Display.
Boe has decided to test produce OLED panels for TVS at its 2200mm×2500mm B5 r&d line in Hefei, the capital of China's anhui province, according to the report. The industry estimates that about 300,000 units will be shipped this year, which is 0.1 percent of last year s total TV shipments (213.54 million units), but more than 5 percent of 6.52 million OLED panels for TVS.
Boe is using OLED panels for TVS because demand for large-size OLED panels is growing rapidly. As of April this year, more than 20 million OLED TVS have been shipped globally since they were first released in 2013, according to market research firm Omdia. It penetrates faster than liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.
The market expects cumulative SHIPMENTS of OLED TVS to grow faster and faster over time. The cumulative shipments of OLED TVS have exceeded 10 million units for the first time in seven years since their debut. However, it took less than two years for cumulative shipments to double to 20 million.
The global OLED panel shipments are expected to exceed 10 million units for the first time this year. LG Display will start operating an OLED production line in Guangzhou, China, in the second half of this year to produce 10 million units a year. Samsung Display has also entered the TV OLED market for large quantum dot (QD) OLED panels since early this year and is expected to ship 600,000 UNITS of QD-OLED for TVS this year. LG Display is expected to account for 88.6 percent of TV OLED panel sales (Omdia) this year, while Samsung Display is expected to account for 11.4 percent.
Boe already owns THE TV OLED panel technology, and if it makes a big push into the TV OLED market, Korean companies' market share could decline. If BOE increases production lines and increases annual shipments to more than 1 million units, Korean companies' MARKET share in OLED panels for TVS could fall by more than 10 percentage points.
