Samsung launches a new TV with curved OLED screen

Jun 27, 2013 04:32 PM EDT

June 27^th, Samsung has officially launched its first super-thin curved TV with OLED screen at a price of $13,000.

Previously, OLED technology has been used in Samsung Galaxy S4 and some other smart phones. Samsung hopes OLED screen can achieve same success in the TV market. However, the price is five times more than normal flat-screen equivalents.

OLED TV is still a minority product. Samsung warms that the market is too optimistic about the sales growth of such products. "We have just introduced our first OLED TV and have to see consumer response to gauge overall market demand," Kim Hyunsuk, a Samsung executive vice president said.

Research firm DisplaySearch has forecast global industry-wide sales of OLED televisions at 50,000 this year and 600,000 next year, with rapid growth thereafter to reach 7 million in 2016.

LG, which currently offers both curved and non-curved 55-inch screens, is estimated to have only sold a few hundred screens so far after starting sales earlier this year.

Samsung said it will begin selling its curved OLED televisions outside South Korea from July but did not specify which countries. It has no plans to offer non-curved OLED screens this year.

OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, it is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. OLEDs are used to create digital displays in devices such as television screens, computer monitors. An OLED display works without a backlight. Thus, it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than a liquid crystal display (LCD). In low ambient light conditions such as a dark room an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than a LCD.

Both Samsung and LG have made a huge investment in the development of OLED technology. They hope OLED technology can continue the success in the LCD display market, help their companies beat Sony and other Japanese competitors, and help them become important suppliers for Apple Inc.