“LG Display Co Ltd. outlined plans to invest $13.5 billion to boost output of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens over the next three years, aiming to cement its lead in big panels for TVs and make inroads against rival Samsung in smartphone displays,” Joyce Lee reports for Reuters.
“The investment plans, roughly 25 percent more than its usual capital spending on an annual basis, also signal that the South Korean firm is shifting its focus to OLED from liquid crystal displays (LCDs) as demand for thinner and more flexible panels surge, analysts said,” Lee reports. “LG Display is the world’s No. 1 LCD maker for televisions and also manufactures nearly all large OLED screens for televisions globally. But it has barely a foothold in the market for OLED smartphone screens where rival Samsung Display, a unit of Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), has a more than 90 percent share.”
Lee reports, “Apple Inc., one of LG Display’s key clients, is widely tipped to adopt OLED displays for the iPhone 8 expected in the second half of 2017.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The race to take OLED mainstream continues apace.
SEE ALSO:
Apple sets up OLED panel R&D line in Taiwan to reduce reliance on Samsung Display – July 24, 2017
Apple in talks with LG Display for up to $2.62 billion investment in OLED iPhone display lines – July 3, 2017
Samsung is building the world’s largest OLED plant to supply Apple’s iPhone – June 30, 2017
Samsung to supply OLED displays for Apple’s 5.28-inch iPhone 9 and 6.46-inch iPhone 9 Plus – May 30, 2017
Next-gen iPhone’s OLED display puts blue spotlight on Japanese supplier – April 24, 2017
Apple signs two-year contract with Samsung for up to 92 million OLED iPhone displays – April 7, 2017
Apple orders 70 million OLED panels for next-gen flagship iPhone – April 3, 2017
LG would have been taking on considerable risk doing it earlier… Samsung, if it loses Apple as a customer can fall back on its own branded phones as a major client… LG can not.
Note that LG has some key early patents on OLED. Those “Quantum Dot” Samsung TVs are workarounds to the OLED tech that LG has patented.
Workarounds are just another word for innovation. 😛 Patents force companies to think differently about arriving at a competitive solution or license the patent.
I really hope this happens. The sooner, the better. I just hope that LG, also S. Korean, does not then pull a Samsung which it conceivably could.
LG would have to learn quickly how to squeeze their pixels smaller to make those smartphone displays. I’m sure their experience with making large OLED displays will help get up to speed but it may still take a while to get yields sufficient for Apple’s purposes.