LG OLED Business Set To Be Challenged By Sharp

As Foxconn boss Terry Gou’s fortune swells to an all-time high of $7 billion it’s emerged that the Company that acquired Sharp last year is set to take LG head on in the OLED TV market.

During the past month, the Taiwanese Company has approved close to A$1 Billion for two new OLED TV manufacturing plants in Japan.

The move will see Sharp challenge LG who at this stage is the only mass producer of OLED TV’s.

Currently Japanese Companies Sony and Panasonic use LG OLED panels, however this could change with both Companies tipped to switch to Sharp produced OLED display panels.

Sharp, which is now owned by Foxconn is set to build the OLED plants the town of Taki, Mie Prefecture, where small and medium sized panels for use in tablets, notebooks and smartphones will be created. It’s tipped that this plant will produce display screens for Apple.

Another OLED line will be set up at the Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, where large OLED TV’s will be produced. ChannelNews has been told that the line will initially deliver 55″ and 65″ OLED TV display screens.
Terry Gou the chairman of Apple’s main iPhone assembler is said to be set to deliver an upbeat business outlook at the company’s annual general meeting Thursday in Taipei.
According to analyst’s OLED screens are hard to manufacture, and the industry is seriously cut-throat.

Samsung dominates the smartphone and tablet industry with over a 90% market share.

When it comes to television panels however, LG is the clear leader with the Korean Company banking on partners to support their OEM manufacturing production.
The analysts claim that if Sharp can produce quality OLED panels in bulk, it’s entirely possible that we’ll see the price of OLED televisions falling because of the increased market competition. Similarly, we’d expect to see smartphones featuring OLED displays to become more prominent, as many phone vendors – Apple included – have refrained from adopting the tech.

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David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.