No, not by watching the 1986 classic Rob Reiner film, but by giving you the option to take your monitor with you wherever you go (in your house).  LG Electronics (066570.KS) has released limited quantities of what it calls a wireless private screen and stand in Korea.  While it looks like a 27” monitor, the stand allows the display to be swiveled, tilted, and rotated, so it can be used in a variety of situations, but the real feature that seems to have attracted attention is the fact that the display can operate for up to 3 hours without power.  According to LG, this means as long as you have a wireless connection available, you can take the monitor anywhere in the hose or even outside, and not have to go searching for an outlet to plug it in.
 
The device is based on WebOS 6.0, which is the same as the LG 2021 TV line which gives access to the LG Channel which provides 144 free channels (in Korea), and when you realize you have left the remote upstairs, you can use the touch screen controls.  To make it more useful, LGE has included the ability to download apps from its store, many of which are those used in smartphones, so users will have little learning curve with the touch screen, and if you turn on your smartphone’s NFC app, you can just tap the phone on the NFC logo that will appear on the screen and the phone’s display will appear on the monitor, which means you will have less chance of going blind from watching movies on a 6.5” screen.
 
LGE put a limited number (300) of the devices on pre-order status both on its website and at a single store, with all units selling out in 1 hour, with a sequential delivery schedule beginning next month, and the promise that another on-line pre-order session will be held before the official launch next month.  LGE says this new form factor is part of its program to adapt its products to a ‘new lifestyle’, although portable TVs, albeit far smaller, have been around since the 1970’s, with this shot seeming to be a step in the right direction for those that do not feel obligated to have a static TV in every room.  If you live in Korea and were one of the lucky 300, when the wife tells you to clean your junk out of the garage on the weekend, you won’t have to miss the Men’s Judo or the Women’s Canoe Slalom events while you empty those tie-die shirts you had in college.  LG “Life is Good!”

​Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has been a beneficiary of the increased demand for semiconductors that has pushed the space into shortages and a bit of panic buying.  As the global leader in DRAM production, Samsung should see the results of the increases seen in DRAM pricing in its 2Q results, and while the company will not give details until the full conference call later this month, Samsung released its preliminary sales and operating profit estimate last night.  The company reported sales of 63t won ($55.4b US) against consensus estimates of ~60t won and operating profit of 12.5t won ($10.99b US) against consensus of 11.3t won, which puts sales down ~3.7% q/q but up 18.9% y/y and operating profit up 33% q/q and up 53.4% y/y.
While Samsung does not give detail when it releases preliminary numbers, the general consensus is that the quarter saw a one-time gain from a ‘take-or-pay’ deal with Apple (AAPL) of ~500b won ($439.7m US) and that much of the strength in the quarter came from semiconductors, where DRAM prices rose 26.7% in 2Q, after a 5.3% increase in 1Q, leading to an expected 22% increase in operating profit for the segment.  Expectations for smartphones are less sanguine, with shipments down substantially from 1Q as Galaxy S21 sales slowed, and while y/y comparisons for Samsung Display (pvt) will show the reduction in SDC’s large panel production, we expect display to see positive results as panel prices rose through the quarter, albeit less for small panels where Samsung shines.  Details later this month.

​LG Electronics (066570.KS) also reported 2Q preliminary results of 17.11t won ($15.05b US) and operating profit of 1.11t won ($967.4m US), up 48.4% and 65.5% y/y respectively but down 3.9% and 37% q/q after a record 1Q..  Both were in line with consensus estimates.   The continued strength at LGE is expected to have come from both the appliance business and the TV space, where increasing OLED TV sales and higher LCD TV prices have helped to narrow the gap between the two.  As the company has closed its mobile division, 2nd quarter results will see that as a discontinued operation and 1Q results will be adjusted to reflect same.  Details from the company later this month.

Last July we noted a LG Electronics patent filing that described a ‘rollable’ mobile device that allowed the user to expand the size of the device and display by pulling the display out of a hidden roller inside the device.  When not in the extended mode, the display rolls back up as a rollable window shade might.  At the time, LG had been working to develop a foldable/rollable device under a program known as ‘Project B’, looking to find some way to differentiate a foldable product from those already produced by Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola.  Such devices have been under development for many years with the promise of displays that can be greatly extended for reading, yet rolling up to the size of a pen.
Both Samsung and LG have promised such devices, and shown early prototypes, but we still wait for the day when we can pull a readable display out of a pen-sized device, avoiding having to carry a phone or similar piece of bulky electronics.  Chinese brand Oppo (pvt) has teased with a short video of an extendable device and BOE (200725.CH) is said to be closing in on a small sized rollable display, but LG Display might be getting close to being the first to actually commercialize a rollable smartphone, if the short teaser they attached to their CES presentation is any indication.  It’s very short and gives no information as to potential cost or availability, and is still far away from the scrollable pen we are still waiting for, but LG has hinted that it was looking to release a rollable device early this year and while there is no guarantee that the video means anything more than others, LG has considerable experience with rollable devices.

LG already has a rollable OLED TV that is available in South Korea, if you are willing to spend ~$87,000 for the 65” model, but a mobile version would entail far different technology.  The display, depending on the size of the roller, would see even pressure as it rolls or unrolls, rather than the crease point foldable displays see when closed.  While this would reduce potential creasing, the display would have to roll to a size of less than 8mm if the device were to match current smartphones, and the extended structure of the device would have to be rigid enough to keep the display taut and flat, yet easily snapped back to normal size and scrolled.  There have been many patents expounding various mobile device structures to accomplish these goals, along with innumerable scrolling schemes, but taking those patents and translating them into a mass production device that is more than a novelty has proved challenging.  That said, we believe smartphone and display designers and engineers are getting quite close to a commercial ‘rollable’ device and while it might not be the stretchable pen we are looking for, it would be a first step toward same.

The Korean press has noted that Apple (AAPL) has received criticism for ‘disregarding Korea’ by announcing an additional $508m investment in two R&D centers in China, following the promise to build two other R&D centers in Beijing and Shenzhen.  Apple has yet to open an Apple store in South Korea, although one is being developed in Seoul although no date for opening has been set.  However they have 40 stores in China, with the R&D centers seen as a way to build what has been a declining share on the Chinese mainland.

Despite the country rhetoric, there are real reasons why Apple has not focused on South Korea, with the most obvious being it is the home of rivals Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics (066570.KS), who have a distinct home court advantage.  But the country points to the fact that South Korea has the highest smartphone penetration rate (88%) of any country worldwide, while China is in the middle of the pack at 58.5%.  That misses the point however that South Korea has a population of ~50.5m, while China has a population of 1.38b, so the simple math says South Korea has 44.4m individual smartphone users, while China has 808.5m smartphone users, or 18.2x as many, making the decision relatively simple from an economic standpoint.