Vertical Divider

QLEDs Trending Downward, OLEDs Up
June 25, 2018
 
IHS Markit and DSCC are in a competitive battle to be the #1 display research entity. So it comes as no surprise that IHS would point out that my son, Ross Young and founder of DSCC last year predicted that quantum dot-equipped LCD TVs (“QLED”) would race past OLED TVs, when they released their most recent report on QLED and OLED TV shipments. IHS reports that sales of “QLED” LCD TVs are on a downward trend, whereas sales of OLED TVs are trending up. For the past two consecutive quarters, sales of OLED TVs surpassed those of “QLED”. The trend is a result of strong showings by OLED vs. QLEDs in head to head matchups and the adoption of OLED by ~15 brands around the world as reported here last week. 
 
Figure 1: OLED Vs. QLED TV Shipments

​Source: IHS, OLED-A
 
In April 2017, in response to the growing strength of OLED TVs, Samsung, TCL and Hisense formed the ‘QLED Alliance’. However, the group appears to be falling apart as Hisense announced it would launch its first OLED TV later this year. Samsung has also resumed development of OLED TVs, although the exact nature of the technology design is not yet set. Business Korea noted that in the first quarter of 2018, sales of LG OLED TVs grew 124% Y/Y as compared to sales of Samsung “QLED” LCD TVs that plummeted 45% year-over-year.