A recent news report from Korean FNNews.com included details of LG Display’s (Seoul, South Korea) newest initiatives to boost profitability by "focusing on competitiveness." The story centered on the company’s announced $226M investment into OLED production, a move Kwon Young Soo, LG Display’s CEO, said would triple the new emitting-display capacity from the current 4K substrates to 12K by the end of 2011.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

Some analysts see the increase as a direct result of Apple’s (Cupertino, CA) contract with LG, which was reportedly expanded from $500K to $800K. This coincides with recent rumors that Apple’s next-generation iPhone and iPad products will move to OLED panels over the currently shipping AMLCDs. (Okay, the rumors were that the first-gen iPad was to have had an OLED, too…)

Some in the industry believe production for the 9-inch OLED panel is still too inefficient for such high volume (low cost) products like the iPad, but the next-gen iPhone is another story.

Adding to this, LG’s Kwon also disclosed that his competitive thrust includes moving first into small OLED displays, following the footsteps of leading OLED display maker and Korean display rival Samsung.

Note: LG and Samsung both are supplying TFT-LCD panels based on LGD’s IPS technology to Apple for the current-generation iPad. DigiTimes reported that LG supplied between 300K and 400K AMLCD screens to Apple for the iPad in February, and another 500K screens in March, which is believable as Apple reported yesterday they sold 1 million iPads since introduction - and even faster start than the iPhone.

Meanwhile, LG said it plans to build additional capacity for smaller OLED panels (for the mobile and smartphone market.) The line in Paju City will produce glass substrates (730- × 920-mm) and will start up by Q3′10. This looks more like LG is playing catch-up with Samsung on the small OLED display side, so we expect it to be supplying OLED displays for smartphones first.

It’s pure speculation, but can’t you just imagine the Samsung dealmaker sounding something like this? "Okay, LG, you share Apple’s iPad contract with us now, so we can build IPS-version AMLCDs as a second source for Apple. And we’ll share the Apple’s iPhone small OLED display contract with you later to supply OLEDs as a second source."

But back to reality… LG then announced it would complete construction of an OLED line to produce 30-inch displays, which should come on line in H2′11. This is in line with reports last October saying LGE’s display roadmap included 30-inch and larger OLED panels by 2011.

The October report also included a 20-inch display for 2010 and the 15-inch (15EL9500) that made history as LG’s first HD OLED-TV(1366 x 768) to ship in Korea (November ‘09) and in the US in March. Since there is no mention of a 20-inch display, we think that product may have been put on hold or displaced by the move in the direction of OLED mobile/smartphone displays - and possibly by the Apple supply deal. We are working to confirm this with our contacts at LG.

While OLEDs grabbed most of the headlines, the company also said it would build its competitive strategy around flexible displays. FNNews (translated from Korean) mentioned "electronic paper display, flexible, color and development of the industry’s most advanced e-paper technology." This technology may not be far off for LG. At the Hearst/Skiff e-book reader press conference at CES, LG Display gave the public its first look at its flexible 17-inch EBR technology. This first unit is a groundbreaking (1200- x 1600-pixel) display that includes an EPH frontplane mounted on a flexible stainless steel backplane. The company even hinted at a next-generation color panel, and a solar-powered version that soaks up sunlight to generate power while it’s being used outdoors. (See our January issue of Mobile Display Report, p. 36.)

Interestingly, solar power was the third technology mentioned by LG as part of its new competitive strategy.

Clearly, LG is in the OLED display camp and is looking to increase competitiveness using this technology. The LG management seems to have recognized the wisdom in moving towards OLED using the phased-in approach adopted by Samsung. That is, smaller OLED displays now and larger ones as the market and manufacturing processes mature. We hope to have much more on OLED manufacturing progress as we count down towards Display Week, and the OLED sessions at SID in May. So don’t touch that dial. - Steve Sechrist