Samsung, LG join hands to 'fight' Chinese TVs

Samsung's new line of large-size OLED TVs uses panels from rival LG Display. (Photo: Samsung Electronics).

In August 2023, Samsung introduced large-sized 4K TV models using white OLED panels from LG Display. However, the highlight was not the 83-inch screen or other features, but the handshake between the two Korean "rivals".

White OLED (or WOLED) is a type of display that adds a white subpixel in addition to the RGB (red, green, blue) filters to create the entire color spectrum. OLED screens from Panasonic and Sony also use this technology. Meanwhile, the traditional OLED that Samsung often uses contains pixels divided into three colors: red, green, blue without filters.

Samsung and LG, the world’s two leading TV makers, are locked in a fierce battle for sales. Samsung has derided WOLED as inferior to traditional OLED. However, the company has struggled to control the quality of large-size OLED panels for TVs and has failed to improve its cost competitiveness despite its overwhelming market share in the small-size smartphone display market.

For Samsung, buying panels from LG would mean publicly admitting technological defeat to its rival. What brought them closer together was the rise of China, Nikkei said.

Chinese electronics maker BOE Technology has become the world's leading LCD display maker, with Samsung pulling out due to declining profits and LG ceasing domestic production. OLED could be next.

In China, companies such as BOE, China Star Optoelectronics Technology and Visionox are taking advantage of government subsidies to build giant OLED panel factories to take market share from their South Korean rivals.

Samsung and LG Electronics still hold a combined market share of about 45% in the global TV market. If the two cooperate in panel procurement, profits can be guaranteed.

In the 2000s, the rise of South Korea and Taiwan (China) in the display industry forced once-dominant Japanese companies to shrink or retreat.

Today, Chinese companies are trying to overthrow industry leaders in a similar way.

(According to Nikkei)

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