What makes Samsung and LG tremble

Chinese manufacturers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their copying capabilities. Large-format OLED technology, which is monopolized by Samsung and LG, may soon be infringed upon.

BOE 's flexible OLED panel. Photo: BOE .

At a press conference of the Korea Display Association, Lee Cheong, President of Samsung Display, warned that Chinese companies are pursuing large-size OLED solutions. Currently, businesses from the billion-people country have surpassed Samsung and LG in small sizes, which are used in phones. This has rekindled fears of losing the LCD market in the past.

“There is still a technology gap, but the growing sense of crisis in the industry means Korea cannot let its guard down,” Ddaily said.

In his inaugural speech as chairman of the Korea Display Association, Lee Cheong emphasized that China has already taken over key features. However, Samsung leaders said that they are still safe in holding core technology and will not stand still and wait for competitors to surpass them.

Korean companies are still ahead with OLED, but the gap is getting shorter. Photo: Samsung.

According to a report by TrendForce , BOE (China) will ship 202 million OLED phone screens in 2024, surpassing Samsung (201 million). The company is not stopping but is expanding its 8.6 generation line (2,250x2,600mm) worth 9 billion USD . TCL CSOT is also increasing the production of mid-sized OLEDs used in tablets and laptops. They have begun mass adoption thanks to inkjet technology.

The expansion made Samsung and LG nervous. They had surpassed Sharp, Sony and Panasonic in the LCD stage. But in the end, these companies all stopped producing liquid crystal displays because they could not compete with China, with its advantages of scale and low prices.

However, Korea is still stronger in technology. Samsung supplies high-quality LTPO screens almost exclusively, with Apple as its main partner. BOE also produces them, but they struggle with quality control. Many of the problems that have appeared on the iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max are said to have originated from the BOE panels that were shipped.

Similar gaps are also present in mid-size OLEDs. Apple adopted dual-screen (Tandem OLED) for the iPad Pro last year. The solution is currently only provided by LG, Samsung. TCL CSOT has not yet fully mastered this technology on a large scale. Korean companies are also ahead with new solutions such as OLEDoS, MicroLED and inorganic light-emitting diode EL. This is the future of display technology, applied to specialized needs such as XR, VR, AR.

Source: https://znews.vn/thu-khien-samsung-lg-phai-run-so-post1541655.html