Jordan O'BrienLG is all in when it comes to OLED displays, with the company planning to invest 10 trillion won (£5,400m) in OLED technology over the next three years.
OLED will now be the focus of LG Display’s investment, despite the company being the world’s largest maker of liquid crystal displays.
LG is betting on the growth in demand for advanced displays – which include foldable screens and circular screens – as well as the continued adoption of screens in more and more places.
Cars, refrigerators and watches now all demand high quality displays and LG believes that OLED is the way forward.
Consumer demand for LCD screens is dwindling, despite falling prices, which is forcing LG to expand its footprint in smaller devices such as smartphones and smartwatches.
LG Display already supplies the screens to many popular consumer devices, such as the Apple iPhone, although it believes that OLED will help manufacturers create even more interesting form factors, such as circular smartwatches or flexible phones, much like the LG G Flex 2.
“The investment aims to make LG Display grow as a sustainable company,” CEO, Han Sang Beom, said in the statement.
“LG Display’s priority is to pioneer this untapped OLED market to sustain our leadership in the display industry and keep the competitors at bay.”
In 2014 the global OLED market was said to be worth $8.7bn (£5,500m), although that figure is set to skyrocket to $28.3bn (£18,000m) by 2022.
This move from LG could be seen as a way of combating growing Chinese competitors, including Beijing-based BOE Technology Group, which promised to spend 40 billion yuan (£4,000m) on an LCD factory that will produce displays for large TVs when it opens in 2018.
LG Display CFO, Don Kim, expects sales to continue on their downtrend in the third quarter of this year, meaning OLED technology could help the company grow its profits.