China and South Korea are competing fiercely in the OLED panel market, and the winner will be decided in 2027.
Apple announced that it will launch an OLED tablet in 2025, and Chinese and South Korean panel manufacturers have also announced investment plans for the 8th generation OLED panel production line, which also indicates that China and South Korea are determined to compete in this 8th generation OLED panel battle.
Chinese and South Korean panel manufacturers once had a fierce battle in the LCD era, and after more than ten years of hard work, Chinese panel manufacturers have finally achieved from nothing to all-round transcendence. In 2003, BOE acquired South Korea's Hyundai 3.5th generation LCD production line, master LCD manufacturing process; In 2009, BOE and TCL Huaxing prepared the world's most advanced 85th generation LCD production line, catch up with the world trend.
In 2018, BOE achieved 10Mass production of 5th generation LCD production line; TCL Huaxing achieved mass production of the 11th generation LCD production line in 2019, and Chinese panel companies have surpassed Korean companies; South Korean companies have withdrawn from the LCD market because of their low production costs and inability to compete with Chinese companies.
After the loss of South Korea in the LCD market, it is mainly concentrated in OLED panels, Samsung occupies small and medium-sized OLED panels, LGD occupies large screens, but in recent years, China has caught up in the small and medium-sized OLED panel market, and China's share in the small and medium-sized OLED panel market has reached more than 40%, of which South Korean companies occupy nearly half of the share.
In the large-screen OLED panel market, many companies have shown hesitation, because LGD occupies a large share of the large screen, which is why many companies are hesitant to enter the large-size OLED panel market.
Because it is very difficult to promote OLED panels in the field of TVs, all major manufacturers are considering promoting OLED panels to PCs, compared with dozens of inch TVs, the display screen of PCs is much smaller, especially laptops, generally not more than 15 inches, so the quality is easier to control.
Notebooks have always been pursuing the characteristics of being as thin as cicada wings, OLED's thickness far exceeds LCD, which makes PC manufacturers get involved in OLEDS, at present, the world's six largest notebook companies have released OLED screens, judging from the market reaction, the quality problem is not serious, therefore, panel manufacturers have begun to mass produce medium and large size OLEDS, China and South Korea are fiercely competitive.
Samsung has already announced that it will go into production in 2026 86th generation OLEDS, BOE will be put into production in 2027, Visionox, TCL, Huaxing, etc. have also released relevant production plans, which shows that Chinese panel manufacturers intend to use the model of simultaneous production of multiple enterprises to put pressure on Samsung in the OLED panel market.
Chinese and South Korean panel manufacturers are competing not only in the field of OLED panels, but also in the field of more advanced micro LED panels. Although TCL Huaxing also has OLED panels, they have made great progress in micro LED panels, they did not use more complex micro LEDs, but used relatively simple micro LEDs, micro LED sales have exceeded one million units, micro LEDs will also occupy the notebook market, and OLED has formed a competitive relationship.
Samsung has done a good job at this point, they have a big lead in the field of OLED and microLED, but because of the difficulty and cost of manufacturing microLED, it has not been well developed, and now, Samsung has also begun to enter the field of micro LED.
It can be said that China and South Korea have launched their respective layouts in the field of high-end panels, and the leading position of Korean manufacturers in this field is getting lower and lower, and Chinese and Korean manufacturers will compete in OLED, micro LED, microLED and other fields in 2027.