There was a big to-do with Korean government luminaries and Samsung bosses getting together to laud the company’s investment in OLED manufacturing in Korea. It’s a $3.1 billion investment and it’s got the Applerrati all a giggle with eager anticipation of OLED MacBooks, and the usual insanity of let’s just speculate about the speculation. It’s like reading a transcript of a sports talk radio where everyone is talking about an in utero athlete and what they’ll be doing on their 28th birthday. Imagine that one real hard because you know I am right.
What I am interested to know is that in a follow-up piece, The Elec is saying Samsung’s president, Joo-Sun Choi, thinks laptop and tablet OLED sales will increase to 20% of total sales, five times the current level. Samsung Display’s sales in 2021 were 32 trillion won ($24.32 billion), and sales in 2022 were 34 trillion won ($25.84 billion). 20% of total sales would round out at about $5 billion, and current IT OLED sales are estimated to be about 1 trillion won ($760 million). It is unlikely to be because of anything Samsung’s frenemy Apple is doing, other than on future iPad sales. This news comes hot on the heels of some rave reviews for the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra’s display.
The star of the show is the simply stunning 16 inch 3K OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It is one of the best displays I’ve seen, with inky blacks, amazing contrast and accurate colours that practically burst out of the screen. Its peak brightness of about 500 nits for HDR content is comfortably beaten by the searing brightness of the LCD-based MacBook Pro but in line with OLED competitors and certainly bright enough to look great.
The Guardian
All we do know is that significant contributions to the bottom line from this new investment are going to be 5 years out. We know that Apple will try and stay away from giving much or any of its OLED business to Samsung, and the distance between the two companies will grow bigger over time. You could say, Samsung is a direct competitor to Apple in the laptop space and it could just be that absence of any other OEM’s buying up capacity, Samsung can leverage its own display manufacturing to make a run at increasing its laptop market share with its OLED tech. That’s about the most telling differentiation in the category, particularly for professional users. One thing is for sure, what is happening today will echo through the histories of 2026 and beyond. For now, Der Mensch Tracht, un Gott Lacht.
| Supplier | Equipment/Process |
|---|---|
| Canon Tokki | Evaporators and exposure machines |
| Applied Materials (AMAT) | Thin film encapsulation |
| ICD and Wonik IPS | Dry etching equipment |
| Iruma | Sputter |
| HIMS | Tensile machine |
| HB Technology | Repair equipment and inspection equipment |
| J-Stec | Bonding equipment |
| Philoptics | Laser cutting equipment |
| Chemtronics | Etching process |
