What Display Daily thinks: You’ve probably seen it before, a Hollywood couple is rumored to be on the outs, they go on vacation together, get their beach bods out, look perfectly in sync, come back from social media happy beach trip, and break up or file for divorce.
You have to read the signs, the totality of the coverage of the aforementioned Hollywood couple. They were not seen with each other at major events, there were rumors of affairs, they unfollowed each other on Instagram, they left instagram, they didn’t post any couple pictures on Instagram, and it goes on and on.
Let’s use the same powers of deductive reasoning on the relationship between the OLED market and South Korea. Right now they seem to be in that phase of denying any trouble in the relationship. Samsung and LG have been touting their total dominance of OLED TV sales because, you know, no one else has much OLED TV inventory to sell anyhow, and companies like Hisense and TCL seem to be doing okay selling to the masses.
Then you have Samsung and their offer below. It’s kind of like Porsche entering the Italian market by giving away a free Vespa with every pre-order of next year’s model. Yeah, it makes no sense. It sounds great, on the surface, but it makes no sense when you have the world by its horns and are making bank on your products.
You also have to wonder why you have to show your support for your OLED materials sales if things are looking so hunky dory. There are, no doubt, a few companies doing really well out of OLED materials and TV sales, and that amy be mostly due to the fact that the supply chain consists of only those few companies.
Give it a year, and once the Chinese companies figure out where they can enter the OLED TV market, Samsung and LG don’t seem to have much of an answer. Not at the prices below, and not if they are doing buy one, get one free deals like this. Of course, Apple may end up selling Vision Pros with a free charger and year’s supply of UCB-C cables (they are made to last exactly 3 months so this is a great deal). I wonder what the market reaction would be to that kind of move. Stock price nosedive?
Dammit, Vision Pro, I can’t quit you.
As for OLED TVs and market dominance: when it makes sense at ground level, where the consumers are, but the premium TV market needs to go away because it makes no sense when you consider the state of television watching n general. You can’t cheerlead maxing out credit cards at existing interest rates just so you can see how awful some of Netflix’s special effects on Rebel Moon are.
The big questions i, if everything is looking on the up and up for OLED this year, why the full court press and promotion of sunny forecasts? Why, also, the less than convinced response of the South Korean press and stock analysis? Skepticism, caution, or disbelief?
1. Buy One Expensive OLED TV, Get One Crappy TV Free
This is a simple enough story to follow. You go to Samsung’s online store and you see this.
Then, you click on your pre-order button for an OLED TV and you get this:
Effectively, if you do the math, you pay full price for a product that will probably get an immediate Amazon discount of 30% when it ships, and in return you get a $500 TV which is probably costing Samsung less than $250 to write-off. So, it’s not even a 10% pre-order discount unless you contort yourself like a pretzel to justify a better deal.
But, it sure sounds impressive up front, but is it on brand?
2. EMNI Shows Faith in OLED Materials Marke
This is more of a story that only the Korean business press can relate to, but it has not bearing on the state of the OLED market. Koh Chang-hoon, CEO of EMNI, an OLED materials company, has increased his shareholding in the firm, signaling confidence in its future prospects despite current undervaluation.
In March, CEO Koh purchased an additional 15,000 shares on the market, bringing the combined stake of the largest shareholders, DSP Corporation and Koh, to 5.775 million shares, or approximately 27% of the total shares outstanding.
In February, the company announced plans to liquidate its overseas subsidiary, Suyeon Plastic Science & Technology (Huizhou) Co., Ltd., to enhance management efficiency and focus on the OLED business by reorganizing the low-profitability precision mold and plastic injection divisions. While this move is expected to slightly decrease consolidated sales, net profit and cash flow are anticipated to improve, bolstering the competitiveness of EMNI’s core OLED business.
Koh expressed optimism about the growth of the OLED material market this year, forecasting increased supply of existing red hosts. He emphasized that the company will strive to achieve visible results in various OLED core material businesses promoted as new ventures, as well as existing businesses, to drive performance to the next level.
