Has Samsung decided to launch an OLED TV?

Recently, the world media was shocked by the deafening news of Samsung’s intention to purchase millions of OLED panels from LG. The only purpose of such a deal can only be the release of further TVs based on them under their own brand, as do many other manufacturers, including Sony, Panasonic, Vizio, Philips. But how realistic is the scenario of Samsung OLED appearing on the shelves next to Samsung QLED? It was, after all, a rumor that neither side confirmed.

Expert Bob O’Brane from the consulting company DSCC shared his opinion on this issue on the pages of the site www.tomsguide.com.

In support, he cites the argument about a long confrontation between the two companies, which consisted not only in the struggle for buyers’ wallets, but also in fierce technological competition. As a result, a collaboration scenario between Samsung and LG looks extremely unlikely.

The parties have been trying to convince the public of the shortcomings of OLED and QLED technologies for too long to make a 180-degree turn now.

Samsung strategy

Samsung is trying to counter the growing pressure from the OLED camp by promoting its own QLED TVs, which represent a significant advance over traditional LCD technology. They are not that far in quality from OLED, demonstrating high brightness, wide color gamut and excellent HDR reproduction.

In addition, Samsung has in store the super-technology MicroLED, which is not inferior to OLED, also based on self-emitting pixels, but not of organic origin. It could seriously change the alignment of the TV market, however, due to the insane high cost, its path to the mass consumer is still very far away.

Meanwhile, Samsung has launched its new flagship Neo QLED series, which represents a serious (and more affordable) alternative to OLED. Its use of the advanced MiniLED backlighting marks another step in the evolution of LCD TVs.

Samsung OLED TV?

Surely Samsung engineers would find a way to make an OLED panel into a great Tizen TV. But what will be the price of this creation and how will it be positioned on the market?

Meanwhile, Sony OLED is one of the most expensive but also the highest quality 4K TVs. Sony’s newest model, the A90J, is arguably one of the best-in-class examples in industry history.

In general, the competition in the OLED TV market is already quite high, where a number of manufacturers are promoting their products based on the same panels, including LG, Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Vizio, Hisense, Skyworth, Xiaomi.

Market cannibalism

MiniLED technology entered the market in 2019 thanks to the efforts of China’s TCL. After evaluating its advantages, Samsung decided to use it to compete with the rapidly gaining popularity of OLED TVs. As a result, the Korean giant has built a competent structure of its lineup in terms of marketing: premium category – Neo QLED, middle category – QLED, budget category – other LCD TVs. And breaking it by introducing Samsung OLED would be a rather illogical decision.

OLED with quantum dot technology

Another argument against the rumor under discussion is Samsung’s own OLED developments. More precisely, the symbiosis of the excellent image quality formed by self-emitting organic pixels, with the brightness and saturation of colors created using quantum dots. Samsung has already made huge investments in this QD-OLED hybrid TV, which, according to some reports, may hit the market as early as 2022 .