THE PLASMA ADVANTAGE
OLED is the clear leader in current screen technologies, “the cream on the co ee” as Paul Gray, Principal Analyst & Researcher within the IHS Technology group, formerly DisplaySearch, puts it. We asked him about Panasonic’s potential advantage over some rivals in making the best of OLED panels.
SOUND+ IMAGE: Wet end to think of O LED as a success story that will grow and grow, but you were talking earlier on about reaching capacity, and that as more and more people want them, L G. Display may have to start choosing its friends.
PAUL GRAY, IHS MARKIT: So it’s a fascinating situation that now there are seven brands making OLED TVs — LG, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Grundig, Loewe and Metz — then you can add in China in their own market — Changhong, Skyworth, TCL, I think — and the sole source is LG.Display.
SOUND+ IMAGE: Panasonic is telling us that their past plasma expertise counts as an advantage for them with O LED.
PAUL GRAY, IHS MARKIT: I think that’s right — they know more about emissive displays because they’ve got 15 years of experience with plasma and that depth of experience has value. As I understand it there is a deeper relationship between LG.Display and Panasonic above the transactional one of buying panels. So part of the deal is that they like Panasonic because Panasonic asks them to do diicult things and they learn things from them. And I think that has helped both Panasonic with OLED but also LG.Display and indeed LG Electronics with better performing OLED especially at the black level, which is the thing OLED can excel at and suddenly you see all that shadow detail. And I think that’s got Panasonic’s thumbprints all over it.