It was unofficially planned, it’s about to happen. Samsung Display, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics in charge of the design and manufacture of the group’s display solutions, would end its production of LCD panels next month. As specified Ars Technica, this decision comes at a time when Chinese competition has greatly reduced Samsung Display’s interest in producing and marketing liquid crystal displays. Having become the LCD market leader after its debut in 1991, the group had seen its market share fall to around 2% in recent years.
Samsung had in the meantime largely reoriented its activity towards the production of OLED screens (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) for smartphones, tablets and then laptops and monitors. The firm has also largely focused its efforts on the design and launch of quantum dot displays (mainly used for certain monitors and for its many QLED televisions). More recently, Samsung Display has invested heavily in research and development to develop and then launch televisions based on QD-OLED (mixing quantum dots and OLED) and microLED technologies. Advanced technologies dedicated in particular to very high-end televisions.
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The end of the LCD should finally materialize at Samsung
Expected in 2020, the cessation of production of LCD screens at Samsung Display had been postponed to accompany the resurgence of orders linked to the increase in production of electronic devices (in particular laptops and monitors) in the context of a pandemic. The easing of sanitary measures and the end, in many cases, of working at home nevertheless contributed to very quickly reducing the need for LCD screens… and the relevance for Samsung of maintaining production. In mid-2022, the group would thus be preparing to give the final whistle for this activity.
According to the Korea Times, Samsung Display employees responsible for the production of LCD panels would gradually be reassigned to the manufacture of QLED screens, which are technologically similar. Note, however, that Samsung Display has not yet confirmed through official channels the abandonment in June of its production of LCD panels. The firm should however come to this sooner or later, the end of the LCD at Samsung being at this stage a simple matter of time.