OLED TV Sales To Lag Behind LCD

OLED Televisions are unlikely of become one the dominant technologies in the consumer TV market for the next 10 years. This is according to iSuppli, a leading technology market-research firm.

After the hype which followed launch of the ‘XEL-1’ from Sony – the worlds first OLED TV. Industry experts have debated whether this product from Sony really represents a glimpse into a dominant television technology of the future.

iSuppli have said the answer to this question is simply no. Even though iSuppli has made more bullish projections with respect to the long-term sales growth of OLED screens across all uses, not just TVs.

Their forecasts for OLED screens in phones, PDA’s, cameras and other devices are generally positive. iSuppli says 185 million OLED units will be produced in 2014.

However, sales of OLED Televisions will be much slower to take off and will be only a tiny fraction of global TV sales. LCD will lead for a long time to come. The main reason for this slow take up of OLED TVs is the high production cost of large OLED screens.

The Sony XEL-1 has a retail price of $2500 in the US – a big price for an 11-inch TV. iSuppli forecasts world OLED TV sales to be 2.8 million units in 2013, this represents a healthy yearly growth rate of over 200% from just 3,000 units in 2007.

A sales growth rate of 200% may sound great but 2.8 million OLED TVs is a small drop in the ocean compared the 200 million total TVs expected to be sold in 2008.

So an OLED TV may win over an LCD TV is terms of quality, but LCD sales will probably lead for a long time yet.