Internal Turmoil at Samsung Might Lead to Delay of QD-OLED Products in Retail

Samsung Electronics appears to have ended up in a pricing dispute with Samsung Display over the cost of QD-OLED panels, which could have the knock-on effect that Samsung branded QD-OLED displays might end up in retail later than anticipated. Samsung Electronics was set to launch its first QD-OLED TVs towards the middle of this year, but it seems like that might no longer be the case, unless the dispute can be resolved. The reason behind it, seems to be that LG Display's W-OLED panels are cheaper than Samsung Display's QD-OLED panels and Samsung Electronics doesn't want to pay a higher panel price.

It's unknown how much of a price difference there is, but The Elec is guessing it's around US$100 per panel. Considering Samsung Electronics appears to have bet heavily on QD-OLED, at least based on their CES 2022 announcements and that we're talking about premium TV's here, it doesn't seem like it would make that big of a difference. However, without knowing how competitive Samsung intended to be, it's possible that they wouldn't be able to compete with companies using W-OLED panels from LG Display. Maybe the most interesting part of this story is the fact that it mentions that Samsung Display is working on a 30-inch QD-OLED panel that they will supply Dell with, which is targeted towards computer monitors. So even if we might not see QD-OLED TV's when initially expected, we can at least hope for some high-end computer monitors with the tech later this year. Samsung Display is said to be producing QD-OLED substrates at a size of 2.2 x 2.5 metres at a rate of 30,000 units per month at the moment.