The new investment plans of the company will make its rivalry stronger with Samsung Display Co., Kim added. Earlier in August 2015 too, LG Display made a decision to escalate its investments for grabbing a lion’s share of the untapped OLED market.
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Universal Display Corporation is engaged in the research, development and commercialization of organic light emitting diode (NASDAQ:OLED), technologies and materials for use in displays for wearables, smartphones, tablets and televisions, as well as solid-state lighting applications. It is suggested by experts that Apple may opt for OLED displays for iPhones by the year 2018.
As a matter of fact, LG Display projects the total investment in the P10 plant to exceed over KRW10 trillion.
The facility will be built on land measuring 382 meters by 256 meters – equivalent to 14 soccer fields – and the building will be more than 100 meters tall.
There is a growing demand for flexible OLED panels in the automotive display and smart watch sectors.
The company is expecting the lines will produce OLED in every product segment, including ultra large-size products as well as future products such as flexible and transparent displays.
Meanwhile, the Korea Times quoted an anonymous industry executive claiming, “Samsung Display has recently renewed talks with Apple to supply its small-sized OLED displays for the next iPhones to be released in a few years, which I believe is around 2018”. As per the market research firm, IHS, the global OLED panel market is anticipated to rise from $8.7 billion in 2014 to $29.1 billion in 2022.
TV manufacturers in Korea, China and Japan have already launched OLED TV models and more TV manufacturers in Japan and Europe are expected to adopt OLED TVs in the near future.
OLED screens deliver a more vivid picture quality, consume less electricity and promise wider profit margins than the liquid crystal display (LCD) in common use. LG is definitely a very big supplier of these panels to Apple, but as per Kim, the high demand can not be met by the LG factory and so, Samsung would also supply panels.
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LG has already announced that it will invest close to $1 billion in a 6th-generation flexible OLED production line in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk Province, Korea.
