Undoubtedly, one of the most anticipated televisions of the year is the new generation OLED from Samsung. The Korean manufacturer will finally make the leap to organic light-emitting diode technology with its QD-OLED Smart TV family, but it looks like the launch won’t come to its home country of Korea. At least for now.
A surprising news that has jumped today in the main media in South Korea. This does not mean that Samsung’s family of QD-OLED TVs will not reach other markets. We know that they could be available from June, so their launch is getting closer every day.
But The Korean giant has decided that, at least in 2022, they will not launch their family of QD-OLED televisions, nor LG’s WOLED models in their country of origin. And the reason is none other than the company’s criticism of this technology.
Samsung’s anti-OLED marketing campaign takes its toll in Korea
for years Samsung and LG are fighting a battle in which both firms praised their respective technologies, QLED and OLED. And the truth is that in the case of Samsung, its efforts to detail all the problems that OLED Smart TVs have, burnt out and other failures, are going to play tricks on them in their country of origin.
In the video that heads these lines, we can see one of Samsung’s campaigns discrediting the OLED technology of its great rival. And in South Korea the harassment and demolition has been much greater, so the manufacturer knows that it could significantly damage its image in the country.
A Samsung Electronics official said: “The contract to receive the white OLED (WOLED) panel (from LG Display) has not yet been signed, but even if the transaction goes through, the probability of the WOLED TV launching in Korea within this year is low.”
This adds to the opposition from the marketing team within Samsung Display, which has played a very important role in this decision-making. Fears of attrition from their campaigns against LG’s OLED TVs in South Korea are too high to risk a launch that could flop. Even Vice President Han Jong-hee expressed his opposition to the introduction of WOLED panels, agreeing with this opinion.
Recall that at CES 2020 Han Jong-hee himself (then president of Samsung) said that under no circumstances would they launch OLED televisions. Of course, the manufacturer is in no hurry to launch these televisions in your country.
Samsung knows its Neo QLED family is a hit in South Korea and they can meet 4K and 8K demand with their range of premium TVs. Its objective? Reach 3 million large-format Smart TVs (70 or more inches) sold in 2022 in Korea alone. This is due to the opinion that the price competitiveness of OLED TVs is lower than that of LCD TVs in the 70-inch or larger category.
On the other hand, the price of LCD panels is plummeting, and Samsung Electronics wants to take the opportunity to focus its strategy on QLED technology by lowering the price of its entire line of televisions by 2022.
