# LG to Face Serious Competition in OLED Market



## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

LG may have been the first manufacturer to crack the OLED market, but it’s looking like they’ll soon have lots of competition. 

Earlier this year we discussed Panasonic’s entry into the OLED space. The company’s 65-inch display (TX-65CZ950) is currently selling in Europe for around $4,000 U.S. and – reportedly – will hit the North American market sometime this year. The CZ950 was shown at CES 2016, which is a fairly good indication that Panasonic is serious about bringing it to US shores. The display uses an OLED panel produced by LG Display but features proprietary picture controls specific to Panasonic. 

Fast forward to last week and two more manufacturers have announced their intentions to produce OLED televisions. First up is Samsung Electronics, which has been a major player in television market for nearly a decade. According to a report published in The Korea Times, Samsung is eyeing a return to market sometime during 2017 or 2018. The company currently produces small size OLED displays for products such as smartphones and is said to be ramping-up a new development phase for large-size OLED displays. OLED-info.com says that Samsung’s development efforts will cost nearly 3-billion dollars and will require the company to convert an existing LCD line for OLED production.

Next up is Philips, which hit CES with a gaggle of new 4K LCD sets for the North American market. According to multiple news outlets, Philips shocked a recent European electronics event by announcing its plan to release the company’s first OLED television in Europe later this year; entry into the US market remains to be seen. Much like Panasonic, Philips plans on using an LG OLED display paired with its own image processing software. According to Philips, the use of a proprietary backend will give their television performance advantages over LG Electronics’ current offerings.

The projected OLED market is a massive honey hole for electronics manufactures, which means we can expect to see other television brands hop onboard soon. According to figures reported by The Korea Times, the OLED TV market is expected to reach 10-billion dollars in just three short years (it was valued at 1.3-billion last year). The paper says that a Samsung market entry might accelerate that 10-billion dollar figure.


Image Credit: basf.com


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