November 22, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The world’s largest TV maker Samsung Electronics on Feb. 22 flatly denied reports that it was considering a foray into the OLED TV market.

“We have no plans to do so. Never,” Samsung’s TV and display chief Han Jong-hee told reporters at an industry meeting in Seoul.

“We will continue a two-track strategy based on QLED and micro LED,” he said, adding that Samsung’s first micro LED TV will hit the market in August.

Samsung's QLED TV

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Despite the official denial, however, sources say that Samsung is resuming research for OLED TV as its LCD-based TV business is facing increasing competition from Chinese runner-ups with cheaper but quality products.

But it is also likely that Samsung could ditch OLED to go directly to QLED models. Its current QLED TV is actually more like a brand name referring to an improved LCD. Technically, QLED is a converted OLED display that replaces the emission layer with quantum dot materials that drastically improve color contrast and energy consumption.

Earlier, ET News reported Samsung Display, its display-making unit, would create a new OLED TV development team consisting of some 300 staff within its LCD TV business division with plans to commercialize the technology by 2021 or 2022. The team is also working on inkjet printing technology that could drastically reduce production costs.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)