Samsung SDI and LG leaders in burgeoning OLED market

LG Electronics Inc. jumped to second position in the global organic light emitting diodes market last year while Samsung SDI Co. maintained its No.1 position for a third consecutive year, U.S.-based market research firm DisplaySearch said yesterday.

OLEDs offer lightweight yet powerful display panels for small digital gadgets such as mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and car audio equipment. The display module can replace liquid crystal displays or LCDs.

Samsung SDI recorded related revenues of $100 million with a 21.0 percent market share last year, closely followed by LG with $93 million and a 19.6 percent share.

LG`s 2006 revenue figures reflect a whopping 179 percent increase compared to the previous year`s $33.4 million - and also the electronics maker`s ascent from the fifth to second position in just one year.

Taiwan`s RiT Display was pushed to third with a 16.7 percent share. Japan`s Pioneer came in fourth with a 16.3 percent share and Taiwan`s Univision Technology in fifth with an 11.9 percent.

"We could double our monthly production volume to 2.4 million units at our second OLED production line starting the first half of last year," said an official at LG.

"Taiwanese and Japanese OLED makers produce more volumes than their Korean competitors. But as Korean OLED manufacturers focus on the high-end segment, they generate higher revenues," an official at Samsung SDI said.

OLEDs, at this early stage of production, could be a costly option for its buyers, largely mobile-phone manufacturers. The price will be about 40 percent higher than that of LCDs.

The industry however is upbeat on the potential for this tiny screen technology as it offers many other advantages - lightness, better screen quality, higher power efficiencies, faster response time and no optical illusions when viewed from the side.

"OLEDs will be the mainstream display in like 2010, when its economy of scale can be realized," an industry insider said.

In the LCD market, Samsung Electronics topped the list with revenues of $14.85 billion while LG.Philips LCD came in second with revenues of $11.18 billion, surpassing Taiwan`s AU Optronics and Japan`s Sharp by wide margins last year, according to estimates by DisplaySearch.

In the cathode-ray TV market, Samsung SDI and LG.Philips LCD are likely to maintain their top-tier status in the first half of this year, experts say. Samsung accounted for a 29.9 percent share in the cathode-ray TV market in the second half of last year.

In the plasma display panel market, however, Japan`s Matsushita was responsible for a 31.6 percent, followed by LG Electronics with a 28.7 percent and Samsung SDI with a 22.7 percent.

(stephanie@heraldm.com)







By Hwang Si-young