War of ‘curved screens’ unfolds in ultrahigh definition TV market

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, which are competing to gain the upper hand in the next generation TV market, has begun a “war of curved screens” at the home appliance fair Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) in Germany.

LG Electronics said it will unveil 77-inch, curved-screen, ultrahigh resolution OLED TV, which is the world’s largest, at IFA, which takes place on Friday. OLED is short for organic light emitting diode. After unveiling a 55-inch, curved-screen OLED TV that hit the market recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the U.S. in January, LG has thus unveiled an upgraded, larger-screen product that boasts UHD function, which is four times as high resolution as the full high definition TV.

A curved OLED TV has a concaved central section of the screen, and offers the same degree of high resolution images when viewed at all different locations, and allows viewers to be visually engrossed. “This is a culmination of high-tech display technology,” LG Electronics said. “Notably, the large 77-inch screen will completely fill the full sight of a viewer and thus maximize the visual effect of the curved screen.”

Kwon Hee-won, head of LG’s home entertainment business division, said, “By constantly introducing the world’s first and best products through technological innovation, we will spearhead the global OLED market, and secure growth momentum in the TV industry.” The company plans to introduce to the market the 77-inch, curved screen UHD OLED TV next year. The product has yet to be priced.

Earlier, Samsung Electronics unveiled the world’s first 55-inch and 65-inch UHD TVs adopting light emitting diode (LED) during the media booth tour at IFA on Thursday. Due to the nature of the panel, LED TV is known to be more difficult to generate a curved screen than OLED TV.

A Samsung Electronics source said, “Judging that OLED TV cannot be widely commercialized for the time being due to yield that still remains low and expensive price, we are focusing on the diversification of UHD TVs.” The price of the 65-inch UHD TV will likely be set at around 10 million won (9,200 U.S. dollars), considering the current prize of the same-size flat UHD TV is set at 8.9 million won (8,150 dollars). When the new product will hit the market has yet to be decided.

Samsung Electronics also displayed flat and curved UHD OLED TVs on the day as well. Seong Il-gyeong, executive director at Samsung’s product strategy office, said, “UHD OLED TV is the most ideal TV that combines clear resolution of UHD TV and graphic visual presentation of OLED TV.”