Can OLED TVs "replace" traditional LCD TVs?

Among the several new color TVs released recently, OLED screens are highly praised, and OLED has become the standard configuration of many high-end color TV brands. By searching on e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, and Suning, you can find many TVs with OLED configurations . However, in terms of price, these TVs are also high-end products and are generally priced higher.

Ten years ago, when LED began to gradually replace CRT TV screens, LED TVs were also high-end. Since 2011, LED TVs have begun to enter ordinary homes. So will OLED replace LED and become the main TV screen in the next few years?

Small screens are replacing faster

At present, among domestic color TV brands, LED screens still occupy an absolute dominant position. There are tens of millions of LED TVs circulating in the market every year, while there are only a few hundred thousand TVs equipped with OLED screens, or even less. In the market competition with LED, OLED is still in its early stages.

However, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology professor and inventor of OLED Deng Qingyun once said in a previous media interview that OLED will eventually replace LED and become the mainstream display technology in the future. In the small and medium-sized market, this replacement speed will be faster, and in the large-size field, it will be slightly slower. For example, there has been a lot of calls for Apple phones to use OLED. Although the upcoming iPhone7 will still not use OLED, the industry generally believes that in 2018, Apple phones will use OLED on a large scale, and other mobile phone brands will follow suit.

In the large-screen market, OLED is mainly used for TVs. At present, the price of TVs equipped with OLED screens is more than 10,000 yuan. For example, the price of Skyworth's newly released 55-inch OLED TV is 15,999 yuan, and the price of 65-inch is 29,999 yuan. This is related to the fact that the production cost of OLED is still relatively high. However, it is worth noting that with the continuous development of technology, the price of OLED TVs has dropped below 10,000 yuan, which has greatly expanded the space for OLED TVs.

0LED TV is a highlight of this year's IFA

It is worth noting that at this year's IFA (Berlin International Consumer Electronics Show), OLED TVs became a field where major color TV manufacturers competed for attention. It is understood that domestic color TV manufacturers such as Skyworth and Changhong have launched OLED TVs at the exhibition, and old color TV companies Philips and Panasonic have also displayed their OLED TV products.

Liu Buchen, a well-known observer of the home appliance industry, believes that in the CRT era, Panasonic and Philips once dominated the world; in the LCD era, they were surpassed by South Korea's Samsung and LG and Chinese brands TCL, Skyworth and Hisense. In the upcoming OLED era, these old home appliance brands are trying to take this opportunity to make a comeback.

Industry insiders analyzed that AR and VR technologies are beginning to be applied in the field of television, and these technologies have certain requirements for TV screens. AR and VR technologies are likely to become a major driving force for the development of OLED TVs. For example, the AR TV released by Skyworth recently uses an OLED screen.

Technology has reached a new level

So what is the current level of OLED technology? Liu Buchen once wrote an article to describe it from the perspectives of "low yield", "image retention" and "short lifespan". He believes that OLED TVs have reached a high level of product maturity today, and companies should no longer view OLED technology with the same perspective as they did three or five years ago.

According to him, the current yield rate of 4K OLED panels is 80%. Although the yield rate of 4K LED panels has reached over 90%, from the current point of view, the yield rate of OLED is already very high, because the yield rate of LCD panels was less than 50% in the early stage of development, and it took ten years to reach 80%; OLED reached 80% in just two years, which should be said to be a very fast speed.

Regarding the problem of afterimage, Liu Buchen believes that early OLED TVs did have this problem, leaving faint marks on the screen after playing a fixed picture for a long time. But this situation no longer exists. For example, Skyworth said that under normal home viewing conditions, its OLED TVs can ensure continuous playback for 10,000 hours without afterimage.

As for the issue of short lifespan, the lifespan of OLED products from mainstream brands is guaranteed to be more than 50,000 hours. Even if you watch it for 8 hours a day, it can be guaranteed to be used for more than 17 years.

Domestic OLED begins to increase investment

In terms of market share, South Korea is still in a monopoly position. The first quarter market report released by UBI shows that the global OLED market reached 91.3 million pieces in the first quarter of this year, of which Samsung Display produced about 86.7 million panels (accounting for 95% of the overall OLED market). At the same time, Samsung continues to increase its investment in small and medium-sized OLEDs, further consolidating its market share in the small and medium-sized OLED market.

It is worth noting that at present, China mainland and Taiwan have also begun to increase their investment in OLED panels. It is understood that China mainland manufacturer BOE is actively deploying OLED lines, and Taiwan panel manufacturers AUO and Innolux are also involved in OLED panel research and development, hoping that each manufacturer can improve product yields in the process from research and development to mass production. However, even though the current domestic investment in OLED screens is very strong, the industry generally believes that there is still a long way to go before mass production or even shaking South Korea's market dominance.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.