Panel market conditions will change? South Korean brokerages predict that the rise of liquid crystal (LCD) panels will cool down in the second quarter of this year; in addition, many manufacturers are pushing MiniLED panels to attack the high-end TV market, which may impact OLED TVs.
Business Korea published an analyst report from NH Investment & Securities on the 2nd, writing that LCD panel prices should continue to rise in the first quarter of 2021, but from the second quarter, the new 10th generation line of Chinese panel factories will be fully mass-produced, and glass substrates will be in full production. The supply of LCD will return to normal, which will slow down the growth of LCD and suppress the surplus of the industry. In addition, MiniLED TVs have become the main product of many TV manufacturers in 2021, and MiniLED TVs will compete with OLED TVs. Since TV demand is highly price-elastic, the operating environment for OLED TVs will deteriorate if the asking price of MiniLED TVs is lower than that of OLED TVs.
TheElec reported on January 19 that UBI Research predicted that Mini LED TVs will become the mainstream of high-end TVs by 2025. The agency predicts that Samsung and LG will dominate this market, and MiniLED will surpass OLED TVs after 2024. They estimate that this year's MiniLED TV shipments will be 2.5 million units. Korean media The Elec, Business Korea, and etnews reported at the end of last year that LG Electronics held an online press conference on QNED TV on December 29, 2020. QNED is a MiniLED TV. The 86-inch 8K QNED TV has 30,000 LEDs as a backlight module and has 2,500 dimming zones.
One of the big advantages of QNED TVs is the price. OLED TVs are expensive, and LG Electronics intends to use QNED TVs to supplement the high-end market demand that OLED TVs cannot meet. LG said that 8K QNED TVs retail for less than half of 8K OLED TVs, and 4K QNED TVs are much less expensive than 4K OLED TVs. It is rumored that Samsung Electronics has invested in setting up a TV production line for MiniLED backlight displays in Vietnam, and is preparing for mass production soon. It is reported that Apple's new iPad may also switch to Mini LED panels. Relevant industry players are competing with Taiwanese factory Epistar and China factory Sanan Optoelectronics to obtain a stable supply of LED chips. |
