OLED screen is making fast penetration in the TV mainstream with global sales surpassing 5 million units in just six years, debunking technology and quality concerns in early days.

According to global industry and economy research company IHS Markit on Thursday, a total of 5.25 million OLED TV sets were sold from their first sale in 2013 until 2018. That contrasts to the 1.3 billion units of LCD TV, 17.13 million units of PDP TV, and 12.4 million units of CRT TV sold during the same period, but OLED TV was unmatchable in growth pace.

Sales of LCD TV grew 4.2 percent over five years whereas OLED TV sales skyrocketed by a staggering 629 times from 4,000 units to 2.51 million units. PDP TV and CRT TV sales showed a sharp decline to fewer than 1,000 units from 7.12 million units and 10.31 million units, respectively, in 2013.

The sales growth was also driven by a rise in the number of TV brands manufacturing OLED TVs. In 2013, Korea’s LG Electronics was the only OLED TV manufacturer but today 15 brands are competing in the market. Japan’s Sony and Panasonic joined the OLED TV market in 2017, while European brands such as Philips and Loewe further boosted their production. Global sales of OLED TV more than doubled from 720,000 units in 2016 to 1.59 million units in 2017.

The OLED TV market category is expected to expand further in the near future as LG Display, the solo supplier of OLED TV panels, is projected to ship 10 million panels in 2021, up from 3.8 million in 2019 and 7 million in 2020. As a result, cumulative sales of OLED TV are forecast to rapidly expand from 9 million units in 2019 to 16 million units in 2020 and 26 million units in 2021. As demand is always outstripping supply in the OLED TV panel market, the growing supply of OLED panels and TVs will cut OLED TV set prices.

LG Electronics remains a stalwart OLED TV player. It took up 62.2 percent in the global market by selling 1,564,000 units of OLED TV last year. It was followed by Sony (475,000 units, 18.9 percent) and Panasonic (195,000 units, 7.8 percent).

By Yong Hwan-jin and Minu Kim

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