Official OLED Q&A Thread

[raygendreau]

Originally Posted by schan1269

Part of the issue with OLED...

What happened to all that DuPont tech?(which is now copied by Kateeva)

Is printed board ever happening? If not, that was one heck of a lot of industry money down the drain.

In "other OLED news"...

Philips is ready to start shipping OLED headlights to the automotive sector...

The state of play in the OLED marketplace as I see it. LG Display has ramped up production of WRGB panels and is supplying several Chinese manufacturers as well as LG Electronics with OLED panels.

LG Electronics has admitted they cannot satisfy the demand for OLED displays.

Samsung, Panasonic and Sony, noting the demand for OLED displays are all scrambling to get back into the consumer market for OLED displays. The OLED Alliance has been established by LG Display (not LG Electronics) and they (LG Display and the Chinese manufacturers) have been joined by Panasonic and Sony.

Samsung and LG Display have settled their legal disputes out of court, paving the way for Samsung to adopt WRGB architecture for consumer OLED displays. It is unconfirmed, but likely that Samsung will license the tech from LG Display which controls most of the patents.

Panasonic and Sony are more likely to purchase LG Display OLED panels for their consumer displays.

The question is, how soon can Panasonic, Samsung and Sony roll out consumer OLED displays?

While we wait, LG Electronics is dribbling their OLED displays out at premium pricing to skim the high end buyer.

http://www.oled-info.com/lg-says-the...emand-oled-tvs

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...33_174866.html

http://www.oled-info.com/lgd-discuss...led-technology

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

The state of play in the OLED marketplace as I see it. LG Display has ramped up production of WRGB panels and is supplying several Chinese manufacturers as well as LG Electronics with OLED panels.

LG Electronics has admitted they cannot satisfy the demand for OLED displays.

Samsung, Panasonic and Sony, noting the demand for OLED displays are all scrambling to get back into the consumer market for OLED displays. The OLED Alliance has been established by LG Display (not LG Electronics) and they (LG Display and the Chinese manufacturers) have been joined by Panasonic and Sony.

Samsung and LG Display have settled their legal disputes out of court, paving the way for Samsung to adopt WRGB architecture for consumer OLED displays. It is unconfirmed, but likely that Samsung will license the tech from LG Display which controls most of the patents.

Panasonic and Sony are more likely to purchase LG Display OLED panels for their consumer displays.

The question is, how soon can Panasonic, Samsung and Sony roll out consumer OLED displays?

While we wait, LG Electronics is dribbling their OLED displays out at premium pricing to skim the high end buyer.

http://www.oled-info.com/lg-says-the...emand-oled-tvs

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...33_174866.html

http://www.oled-info.com/lgd-discuss...led-technology

If what you say is true that LG Display can't meet the demand for OLED displays, then how can you also claim that LG Electronics is "dribbling their OLED displays out?"

If the production can't meet the demand then clearly they're pushing them out as quickly as they can make them. They are pricing them at a premium to try and control demand, but they're by no means limiting supply to increase prices.

[raygendreau]

Originally Posted by spectre08

If what you say is true that LG Display can't meet the demand for OLED displays, then how can you also claim that LG Electronics is "dribbling their OLED displays out?"

If the production can't meet the demand then clearly they're pushing them out as quickly as they can make them. They are pricing them at a premium to try and control demand, but they're by no means limiting supply to increase prices.

LG Electronics can't meet demand, not LG Display. LG Display produces the OLED panels used by LG Electronics and several Chinese manufacturers.

http://www.oled-info.com/lgd-plans-s...5-million-2016

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

LG Electronics can't meet demand, not LG Display. LG Display produces the OLED panels used by LG Electronics and several Chinese manufacturers.

http://www.oled-info.com/lgd-plans-s...5-million-2016

The article you posted says that LGE actually aims to sell more OLED tvs than LGD says it can produce.

If you what you're trying to say were true, that LGE was keeping consumer supply low to keep prices up, then LGE would be selling fewer tvs than LGD could supply.

LGE will actually have to buy 200k panels from manufacturers outside the company in order to try and meet consumer demand for its televisions.

You've shown nothing that indicates LGE is restricting supply to inflate prices, in fact, you've shown quite the opposite.

[raygendreau]

Originally Posted by spectre08

The article you posted says that LGE actually aims to sell more OLED tvs than LGD says it can produce.

If you what you're trying to say were true, that LGE was keeping consumer supply low to keep prices up, then LGE would be selling fewer tvs than LGD could supply.

LGE will actually have to buy 200k panels from manufacturers outside the company in order to try and meet consumer demand for its televisions.

You've shown nothing that indicates LGE is restricting supply to inflate prices, in fact, you've shown quite the opposite.

LGE's difficulty in shipping displays is not due to a shortage of LG Display panels, it is due to the rate of assembly of the displays at LGE.

I think you're confusing LGE's ambitious sales target for 2015, which they have revised downward, with their ability to ship finished displays.

http://www.oled-info.com/lg-electron...-oled-tvs-2015

If LGE was able to utilize all the panels LG display could manufacture, LG Display wouldn't be supplying the Chinese OLED manufacturers with panels.

While LGE owns around 38% of LGD stock, they are only affiliates.

LG Display is currently manufacturing around 26,000 OLED substrates per month which on average (depends on panel sizes cut from the substrate) equals 1.44 million panels per year, assuming they maintain the current 80% yield. This will increase to 34,000 substrates per month by the end of 2015 (possibly over 2 million panels if they improve yield)

[raygendreau]

@spectre08
"You've shown nothing that indicates LGE is restricting supply to inflate prices, in fact, you've shown quite the opposite"

Well either they are restricting supply, because they have no current competition for their OLED tvs, or they completely underestimated demand and didn't ramp up assembly. Their high estimates of sales for 2015 suggests they are limiting supply to keep prices inflated. It certainly isn't due to an OLED panel shortage.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

@spectre08
"You've shown nothing that indicates LGE is restricting supply to inflate prices, in fact, you've shown quite the opposite"

Well either they are restricting supply, because they have no current competition for their OLED tvs, or they completely underestimated demand and didn't ramp up assembly. Their high estimates of sales for 2015 suggests they are limiting supply to keep prices inflated. It certainly isn't due to an OLED panel shortage.

if anybody is restricting supply it would HAVE to be LG Display. I see absolutely no indication that they're doing this.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

Well either they are restricting supply, because they have no current competition for their OLED tvs, or they completely underestimated demand and didn't ramp up assembly....

Where’s a North Korean hacker (to expose company emails) when you need one!

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

LGE's difficulty in shipping displays is not due to a shortage of LG Display panels, it is due to the rate of assembly of the displays at LGE.

I think you're confusing LGE's ambitious sales target for 2015, which they have revised downward, with their ability to ship finished displays.

http://www.oled-info.com/lg-electron...-oled-tvs-2015

If LGE was able to utilize all the panels LG display could manufacture, LG Display wouldn't be supplying the Chinese OLED manufacturers with panels.

While LGE owns around 38% of LGD stock, they are only affiliates.

LG Display is currently manufacturing around 26,000 OLED substrates per month which on average (depends on panel sizes cut from the substrate) equals 1.44 million panels per year, assuming they maintain the current 80% yield. This will increase to 34,000 substrates per month by the end of 2015 (possibly over 2 million panels if they improve yield)

your two sources offer conflicting numbers.

This article

http://www.oled-info.com/lg-electron...-oled-tvs-2015

Comes from September 2014 and is based on 'insiders.'

the next article

http://www.oled-info.com/lgd-plans-s...5-million-2016

Comes from January 2015 and quotes the CEO of LG Display.

I don't think that the production figures for LGD in the article from September are reliable. For one, at the time the production line for the panels wasn't yet online, so those production figures are purely theoretical. The article in January however is after it was online and they actually knew what their output and yield would be.

And still none of these numbers in any way support your hypothesis that LGE is artificially limiting supply to keep prices high. Based on both articles it looks more likely that LGE is doing everything they can to push out as many tvs as possible.

Prices are also still plummeting. The MSRP for the 55" 4K OLED dropped $3,000 from last year to this, the same absolute value as it dropped from 2013 - 2014. I wouldn't expect another $3,000 drop from 2015 - 2016, but probably another huge drop as well. Especially if LGD actually can scale up production to 1.5M units, which I am extremely doubtful of.