Home appliance giant LG Electronics Inc. Monday released organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs with curved displays in South Korea for the first time in the world, staying ahead of a growing competition for the next-generation TV market.
   
The revolutionary model with a 55-inch curved screen is seen to help LG widen a gap with its rival Samsung Electronics Co. and other global TV makers in the race for the burgeoning market, market watchers said.
   
Usually, the images, when they are viewed on a flat screen, are stretched to match the screen size, so they can be distorte because the images do not match up.
   
However, a curved display, according to LG, helps eliminate such a problem, as it is designed to make the images fall back to match the size. The curved display also provides a more life-like experience when watching programs, it said.  
   
Consumers can apply for pre-orders of the 55-inch curved display TV set, which is priced at 15 million won (US$13,545) at retail outlets across the country, with delivery set to start in June, the company said.

Meanwhile, global TV makers have been ramping up efforts to commercialize OLED TVs, which enable slimmer designs and more vivid images compared with liquid crystal displays that require a backlight.
   
Last year, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics competitively unveiled 55-inch OLED TVs with plans to roll out the product in the same year. Both companies, however, failed to mass produce the OLED TVs due to low production yields.
   
The global market for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs is forecast to grow more than 200 times over the next five years, earlier data showed.
   
Worldwide shipments of OLED panels are expected to hit 26.96 million units by 2018, increasing more than 200-fold from 130,000 units forecast for this year, according to the data by NPD DisplaySearch.
   
By amount, OLED panel shipments are projected to reach US$10.02 billion by 2018, accounting for 18 percent of the overall market.   
The report also showed that OLED TVs are expected to surpass plasma display panel (PDP) TVs in two years. (Yonhap News)