Thanks to making healthy profits from OLED retail displays, smartphone screens and latest innovations in ultra-thin TVs, LG has announced that it will be almost be doubling its investment in OLED technology to a huge 7.8 trillion Korean won ($7 billion) over the next three years.
On the back of introducing TVs like the W7 ‘wallpaper’ TV alongside other popular offerings such as the G7, E7, C7 and B7, LG looks set to push its OLED offerings even harder in a bid to dominate the mainstream TV market (and cut the market share of Samsung’s QLED offerings and seemingly anyone else in its path).
It’s worth noting, that although LG may be the market leader in OLED TVs, Samsung actually currently leads when it comes to OLEDs for smaller devices.
LG plans to dedicate around $2.5 billion to developing a brand new line of larger OLED screens, with $4.5 billion set aside for introducing a range of flexible displays using "plastic OLED" or POLED technology, with hopes that bendable smartphone and car displays will be the next big thing.
The production of both lines will see the company expand its manufacturing facilities in Paju, northwest of Seoul.
"We're clearly seeing the possibilities the OLED business offers, not only in the global TV segment, but also in the smartphone and automotive markets," commented Dr. Sang-Beom Han, CEO and vice chairman of LG Display.
This move means that in total LG will have spent a cool KRW 15 trillion ($13.5 billion) on OLED technology from present until 2020.
LG's net profit returned to black in Quarter 2 to KRW 736.6 billion (around $660 million), compared with a net loss of 83.9 billion in the year-ago period. Operating profit also climbed sharply to 804.2 billion won from an operating income of 44.3 billion won in the year earlier period, whilst sales were up 13%.