i3 - July/August 2019 - 44

Business

By Jim Harris

OLED Unit Shipments - U.S. Market
Year

2017 2018 2019

Volume

532

Growth Year over Year

OLED TVs
Hit Prime Time
ales of OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) TVs
grew 60% in 2018 in the U.S. and are set to roughly
do so again in 2019.
only lighter, but ultra thin. At CES 2019,
LG showed off its "Wallpaper" OLED
TV that is only 2.57 mm thick (one
tenth of an inch). In 2019 LG will be
releasing a 65-inch rollable TV - that
scrolls out of a box for viewing. Other
brands selling OLEDs globally include
Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Philips,
Hisense and Bang & Olufsen.

"OLED to many consumers is still a very
new technology," says John Taylor, senior
vice president at LG Electronics USA.
OLED technology was originally invented
by Kodak scientists in 1987. The technology
was first introduced in televisions in 2008.
"We're now in the 5th generation OLED,"
notes Taylor.
OLED has many advantages over today's
dominant LCD technology.

Dramatic Price Drop
OLEDs are found in higher end TVs that
are 55-inches and larger. OLED costs
have been dropping dramatically. In
2013 OLED costs were 16 times greater
than average sized LCDs. By 2022, the

Comparison to LCD
LCD TVs have three layers: backlighting,
then the pixels and then a layer of shutters.
The backlighting layer is on continuously
and it illuminates the pixels in the second
layer. When the image called for is black, the
third layer of shutters come into play and
shut. But some light will still seep through.
Because there are three layers LCD TVs are
thicker and heavier than OLEDs.

JULY/AUGUST 2019

850

1,350

1,850

2,500

3,000

60%

59%

37%

35%

20%

cost difference is predicted to be three
times less, notes Steve Koenig, vice president of market research for CTA.
In the 55-inch TV category and larger,
the price difference is slightly double
that of LCDs and will remain so until
2022, says Koenig.
OLEDs will only make up 3% of the
42 million TVs that will be sold in 2019
in the U.S., but they will represent 10%
of the total market revenue because they
are the premium, large format TVs. By
contrast LCDs are a mature, stable technology and sell in high volume accounting for 97% of the market.
By 2022 OLEDs are predicted to represent 8% of the unit volume of the U.S. TV
market but will make up more than 20%
of the total revenue, according to CTA.
The rapid growth of TV set sales is in
TVs that are 55-inches and larger (both in
the U.S. and globally). A staggering 33%
of all TVs sold in 2025 will be 60-inch or
larger according to IHS Markit.
Jim Harris is the author of Blindsided.
Follow him on Twitter @JimHarris or at
jim@jimharris.com

OLED
LCD

16X

2013

2014

2015

Source: CTA Market Research

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Year

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Ultra Thin and Lightweight
With only one layer, OLED panels are not

2022

Digital Displays Cost

Cost

Superior Picture Quality
By contrast, OLED allows each individual
pixel to be turned on and off. So, in a
4K TV that means all 8.1 million pixels
can instantly be turned on or off. As a
result, the blacks are blacker in an OLED
TV because there is literally no light. It
also means that the contrast is sharper and
colors are brighter.

2021

Source: CTA Market Research

T EC H TACT I C S

2020

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