Samsung Display to develop rollable and slidable displays
Firm to cement foldable leadership in 2021
Samsung Display said on Thursday that it will develop new display form factors such as rollable and slidable to cement in leadership in 2021.
Company senior vice president Choi Kwon-young also said at Samsung Electronics’ fourth quarter conference call that the firm will expand its leadership in the foldable market with small- to mid-displays this year.
In the foldable market, there was currently the flip and fold types, Choi said, and Samsung Display will adopt new technologies first to expand their portfolio and customers for them.
Samsung Display will adopt technologies such as variable refresh rate and low-power to react against competitors entering the OLED market.
It will also strengthen the benefits of OLED amid the rise of remote services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to apply them to more notebooks, tablets and automotives.
More and more smartphones are adopting OLED panels. Apple’s recently launched iPhone 12 series uses OLED for all of its models.
In large-sized displays, Samsung Display will develop quantum display (QD) at the right time and built a stable customer portfolio so that the technology can enter the premium sector.
The company will also continue to deliver liquid crystal display (LCD) for customers, at their request.
Samsung Display initially aimed to end LCD production in 2020 but it is continuing to do manufacture them from requests of Samsung Electronics and other customers.
Samsung Display posted its highest quarterly earnings in the fourth quarter. This was thanks to high demand for OLED from smartphones and increased average sales prices of large panels used in TVs and monitors.
The company posted sales of 9.96 trillion won and operating income of 1.75 trillion won in the quarter. Profit is near 8 times of that of the same time period a year ago.
For the full year of 2020, Samsung Display posted 30.59 trillion won and operating income of 2.24 trillion won, a decline of 2% and increase of 42%, respectively, from 2019.