Washington, D.C.
(May 28, 2012)
-- LG says it will launch its much-anticipated 55-inch OLED TV
in the United States in the second half of this year. The price
tag: Around $10,000.
That's according to an article by CNET.com, which recently
interviewed three top LG executives.
The executives also revealed to CNET that their company will
introduce a 4K OLED set in 2013. They did not revealing any
pricing details for the 4K model.
(Editor's note: The 4K
picture technology
purports to offer a resolution four times better than current
HDTVs. The ultra-thin OLED display delivers more vivid colors
and an improved contrast. The LG OLED TV is expected to be just
4mm thick, or
about 0.15 inches. Samsung's OLED will be twice as thick,
although both sets will be well under one inch in thickness,
which makes them far slimmer than today's LCD and Plasma
models.)
The CNET article also states that LG doesn't believe that OLED
will become a 'mainstream' product until at least 2014, largely
due to the price. But the company's executives are hopeful that
consumer demand and advances in technology will combine to bring
prices down faster than expected.
"It all depends on the actual OLED
technology advancement, but we believe it is possible for OLED
TVs to cost as little as 1.5 times pricier than LED TVs," the LG
executives told CNET. "By then, OLED panel makers should have
invested in more mass-production lines to bring the price down.
But this will largely depend on consumer demand, too."
The LG executives, who are not quoted individually in the
article, said they believe that LCD and LED TVs can co-exist in
an OLED world.
"To
further add, it also depends on the pricing and competitiveness
of each display type. Moreover, it is more cost effective to
manufacture OLED TVs in over 47-inch sizes. By 2015, around 50
percent of such panels will be based on OLED according to our
forecasts," they said. _____________________________________________________________________________
