LG believes that it could be 10 years ahead of its rivals when it comes to developing OLED TV panels.
So far, TV manufacturers have struggled to get yield rates of large OLED panels up to acceptable levels. This has meant that mass-production has been a no-no, and as for producing an affordable OLED TV for the masses - forget about it.
Speaking with CNET, LG's Global Communications Director Ken Hong has revealed that this could be set to change - but only for his company. Hong claims that LG is holding "an advantage that we'll probably feel for ten years," and reckons that "no one will catch us for 2-3 years."
So how has LG been able to establish such a startling lead in the OLED TV set race? Back in 2009, LG bought up the rights to something called white OLED technology from struggling imaging company Kodak, which had led the way in OLED development for many years.
At the time, few people thought that the technology would lead to anything particularly useful, but now LG claims that it has developed the technology to a point where it can attain 80 percent-plus yields of OLED TV panels. That's far better than can be achieved with existing RGB OLED technology.
According to Hong, when LG's rivals speak of customers not being ready for OLED TV sets - which can produce more vibrant colours and far deeper blacks than existing LCD technology - they actually mean that THEY are not ready to provide that technology.
LG has already launched its new 4K OLED TV range in its native South Korea, and will be expanding availability to other regions soon.
Of course, being the only one in the market means that the responsibility of explaining the benefits of 4K OLED TV sets falls exclusively to LG. "We have to educate people because we are the only ones with this product. No one else is going to be helping us," says Hong.
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