Samsung puts the brakes on OLED TV production

Samsung has put plans to build a large-scale production facility for OLED panels on hold for the time being. The production of the OLED panels would still be insufficiently efficient.

This is reported by the Japanese business newspaper Nikkei. Samsung currently produces OLED screens only on a small scale in a production line at the Korean location Tangjeong. Despite attempts to make the production of OLED panels more efficient in order to be able to scale up, production does not seem to be running smoothly: Samsung has postponed investment plans for a large-scale production line. The company will continue to focus on LED televisions for the time being. Further research will be conducted into OLED and Samsung is considering setting up a new production line for small to medium-sized OLED panels, for example for smartphones and tablets.

Despite the various advantages of OLED technology over the dominant LED technology, the market for OLED televisions is still small. For example, according to research firm DisplaySearch, only 4,400 OLED televisions were sold in the US in 2013. The primary reason is that such televisions are still very expensive as a result of inefficient production techniques with a high failure rate.