Sony to Release QD/OLED TV in June
According to Korean trade press Sony (SNE) will be releasing the first commercial TV sets using Samsung Display’s (pvt) QD/OLED technology in June. The Bravia A95K will come in 55” and 65” models and is expected to sell for $3,000 and $4,000 respectively. This is a bit unusual in that SDC parent Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) would be thought to have 1st mover advantage with a new technology developed by its affiliate, but there has been considerable back-and-forth between the two over the technology, with Samsung Electronics allegedly delaying the initial release in May, but postponing that date over disagreements concerning panel price and panel allocation.
The price of the two models, should these numbers prove true, would put the sets at the top of the premium OLED list, at least for 4K TV sets, as pricing for 2022 models from a number of brands have not yet been revealed. As a new technology, or a new production process, one would expect a price considerably above existing premium TV sets, with both novelty and the high cost of production and low yields the general culprits, and by no means is this an inexpensive TV set. However, while the process is different from producing WOLED and involves production steps that are new or less typical and therefore require more specialized equipment and more rigorous testing, the price is not unreasonable in our opinion.
While we cannot directly compare other display technologies to QD/OLED until production models are available and evaluated by display testing specialists such as Displaymate, or Rtings, we do note that the price of Samsung’s initial Mini-LED/QD 65” TV model released last May (65” 900A 4K) has declined 26.9% from its original price in less than a year. Mini-LED/QD technology is considerably different than QD/OLED technology and is based on processes that are more mature, so we would look at such price reductions as a stretch for QD/OLED in its first year, especially as competition will be quite limited and the display single sourced, but a $4,000 starting point is certainly within the realm of retail customer budgets.
The price of the two models, should these numbers prove true, would put the sets at the top of the premium OLED list, at least for 4K TV sets, as pricing for 2022 models from a number of brands have not yet been revealed. As a new technology, or a new production process, one would expect a price considerably above existing premium TV sets, with both novelty and the high cost of production and low yields the general culprits, and by no means is this an inexpensive TV set. However, while the process is different from producing WOLED and involves production steps that are new or less typical and therefore require more specialized equipment and more rigorous testing, the price is not unreasonable in our opinion.
While we cannot directly compare other display technologies to QD/OLED until production models are available and evaluated by display testing specialists such as Displaymate, or Rtings, we do note that the price of Samsung’s initial Mini-LED/QD 65” TV model released last May (65” 900A 4K) has declined 26.9% from its original price in less than a year. Mini-LED/QD technology is considerably different than QD/OLED technology and is based on processes that are more mature, so we would look at such price reductions as a stretch for QD/OLED in its first year, especially as competition will be quite limited and the display single sourced, but a $4,000 starting point is certainly within the realm of retail customer budgets.
RSS Feed