LAS VEGAS ― LG Electronics’ home entertainment chief Kwon Hee-won said Wednesday that the firm expects that about 1 million units of OLED TVs will be shipped globally next year thanks to the increase of competitors.

With the rise of Japanese firms in the OLED TV market, LG is getting ready to mass produce the 55-inch OLED TV which it claims to have superior brightness, clear picture quality and good contrast ratio.

Using W-RGB display technology, the company also showcased the world’s first 55-inch curved OLED TV on the same day with its biggest rival Samsung Electronics.

“We believe the yield rate will significantly improve once we go into mass production (of OLED TVs),” he told local reporters in a press conference held on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show. “The market could get even larger depending on how fast our followers, which are yet to manufacture the product, catch up.”

LG is currently the only global TV maker that has received preorders from Korean consumers with Samsung still not finalizing its decision on when to roll out the new TV set mainly due to the low yield rate. Other global TV makers have only featured prototypes to this date.

In the light of its recently released Ultra High Definition TVs, it plans to launch the series of products ranging in display screen sizes ― the 84-inch, 65-inch and 55-inch ― in about 100 countries worldwide this year.

“With the participation of an increasing number of companies, such as the Japanese firms in UHD TV business, the market size is estimated to grow. With our focus on differentiated OLED and UHD TVs, we expect to achieve a better outcome this year compared to last year,” said Kwon. “We project that the LCD TV sales will grow up to 20 percent this year in comparison to the previous year.”

The firm additionally plans to roll out its Google TV for Korean consumers within this year. It has currently only launched the device in the U.S. market.

By Cho Ji-hyun, Korea Herald correspondent
(sharon@heraldcorp.com)