[THE INVESTOR] The global organic light-emitting diode TV market may not be as robust as previously thought in the coming years, according to an industry report.

Market research firm IHS forecast in its recent report that around 5.8 million units of OLED TVs will be shipped in 2020, down 32 percent from 8.5 million projected earlier this year.

The number of OLED TVs expected to be shipped in 2019 has also decreased to 4 million, down from an estimate of 5.8 million in the previous report

This year, around 830,000 OLED TVs, down from an estimate of 1.2 million six months ago, would be shipped, according to IHS.

The less vigorous OLED TV market will likely bode badly for LG Electronics, which rules the world’s OLED TV sector with a 96-percent market share.

The electronics giant started to commercialize the high-end TV in Jan. 2013 for the first time in the world. Samsung Electronics followed suit by rolling out its own OLED TV later in the same year but put a stop to the production of the premium TV due to high costs and a low production yield rate.

In recent months, LG and its compatriot rival have been locking horns to take upper hand in the premium TV sector with their respective TV technologies.

LG has been continuing its OELD push while Samsung has recently come up with the quantum dot TV technology, which puts a layer of quantum dots, or plasters semiconductor nanocrystals, in the back panels to enhance picture contrast.

Samsung also recently said that it has been working to develop quantum dot LED (QLED) TVs, which are expected to be mass-produced in 2020.

LG claimed that OLED is the ultimate TV technology as the display material, which is transparent and flexible, can be utilized in bendable and even rollable TV products.

“Quantum dot TVs are also just one of those liquid-crystal display TV technologies, which have a fundamental difference (in picture quality) compared to OLED TVs,” said Lee Jung-seok, marketing communication head of LG’s home entertainment, in a media interview earlier this year.

Some critics claim that LCD TVs cannot catch up with OLED TVs in picture quality due mainly to backlight panels placed behind the screen, which hampers the full expression of blacks.

The self-luminant OLED does not require a backlight panel.

Chinese display makers, such as BOE and Ever Display, have thrown down the gauntlet in the OLED sector. The market research firm expected that the participation of the Chinese companies will pose a serious challenge to the Korean display firms.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)