We remind readers that for many years Samsung has been a fierce competitor to OLED technology in the TV market and criticized for the risk of pixel burn-in, opposing its own QLED development to it .
Therefore, the news about negotiations with LG , which appeared in the middle of last year, sounded like a bolt from the blue! It was about buying Samsung OLED panels for the production of their own TVs based on them. It turns out that player No. 1 nevertheless recognized the advantages of the competitor’s technology and backed down in order to expand its own assortment and resist the powerful expansion of the Chinese. Well, the combined efforts of the two Korean companies can only be welcomed, because, in the end, they will only benefit consumers.
It should be noted that both sides during this time have never officially recognized the fact of negotiations. But unofficial sources, on the contrary, abounded in details. Thus, Samsung announced its intention to purchase 2 million OLED panels . Based on them, the company planned to produce 1.5 million OLED TVs in 2022 with an entry to the market by the middle of the year. The plan is pretty aggressive considering the entire OLED TV market was 6.5 million units last year.
However, negotiations with LG dragged on due to disagreements over the cost of the deal. Samsung insists on lowering the price, justifying this with a large purchase, to the same mark at which LG Display ships them to its parent LG Electronics . On the other hand, intra-company prices cannot serve as a basis for external market transactions, LG disagrees .
Thus, the prospects for a Samsung OLED TV this year remain vague. The marketing strategy of the company is also unclear, already built on a clear structure: Neo QLED – premium, QLED – subpremium, other LCD models – the middle and budget segment.