[IFA2022] LG Electronics Confident in Success of 'Bendable' Gaming TV... 2-3 Year Technology Gap with China

April 4 IFA 2022 TV Tech Briefing

'Bendable' Gaming TV Success "Strategy Worked"
Only Way to Beat China Is 'Customer Experience' Idea

Baek Seonpil, Executive Vice President in charge of TV Customer Experience (CX) at LG Electronics, explaining recent TV technology trends and LG Electronics' management direction at the TV Tech Briefing during IFA 2022, Europe's largest home appliance exhibition held in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by LG Electronics)

[Berlin (Germany) = Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok]

"The feature that received the most positive response at 'IFA 2022' is naturally the 'Flexible (bendable, foldable) function' of gaming monitors. The competition from Chinese companies is fierce, and we estimate the technology gap to be about 2 to 3 years."

Baek Seonpil, Executive Director in charge of LG Electronics TV CX (Customer Experience), made this assessment at the TV tech briefing of Europe's largest electronics exhibition 'IFA2022' held in Berlin, Germany on the 4th (local time). He expressed strong confidence in the success of LG Electronics' ambitious gaming OLED TV 'FLEX' and stated that it is already popular. He also noted the remarkable progress of Chinese companies TCL and Hisense.

According to Executive Director Baek, LG Electronics' differentiating point is its self-developed artificial intelligence (AI) system-on-chip (SoC). Along with the ability to plan 'customer experience' items, it is the most certain card to surpass China in terms of technology. He explained that if the display panel is the 'physical' part, the chip is the 'brain.' While LCD products sometimes use Taiwanese chips, high-end OLED products always use self-developed chips. Although the world's largest 97-inch ultra-large OLED TV is only 28.2 mm thick, demonstrating a high level of manufacturing process, the 'chip' is the key variable. LG Electronics has equipped the 97-inch OLED TV and others with the 5th generation AI Alpha9 processor, accumulated over nearly 10 years. It plays a role in maximizing noise reduction and resolution enhancement through upscaling, image processing technology that improves contrast and color expression, and sound processing technology that converts channel audio sources into virtual 7.1.2 channel surround sound.

He emphasized, "We (LG Electronics) consider the 'Alpha9 chip' extremely important," adding, "Chinese companies may have good panels, but to achieve the best picture quality, the SoC and performance must support it, and the technology to 'fine-tune' OLED is crucial." He continued, "The Alpha9 chip separates the background and the foreground subjects (such as people) on the screen and tunes them separately, and the SoC performs this function in less than a second," adding, "This is necessary to produce vivid (crispy) picture quality."

Executive Director Baek did not hide his confidence in the bendable gaming OLED TV 'FLEX,' first unveiled at IFA2022. He said they invited gamers directly and listened to requests such as "42 inches instead of 48 inches because 48 is too big" and "make the horizontal field of view wide enough to fully immerse in gameplay." He even described it as a "TV made by gamers." A notable part of Baek's remarks was his skepticism about the effectiveness of Samsung Electronics' vertical 'Cockpit Mode' gaming monitor. He argued that making a gaming monitor vertical limits the field of view and actually hinders game concentration. According to him, the content popular on vertical monitors is "webtoons and TikTok," not games.

Baek said, "You can't see the entire 55-inch (Odyssey Ark) at a glance, and in fact, you only use about one-third of the 55 inches, so I don't know if providing a vertical monitor gaming experience is a MANDATORY service." Regarding the gaming monitor market, he said, "We are starting with a HUMBLE mindset to sell about 50,000 to 100,000 units," but added, "To know the details, we need to buy competitors' products and look at the 'inside (software),' but it seems our FLEX is still somewhat ahead of Chinese TCL and others."

Executive Director Baek assessed the gap with China to be only 2 to 3 years. He judged that 4K general TVs are already on par. Except for premium OLED TV components like SoCs, the gap is not large. He compared the current situation to about 10 years ago when LG and Samsung caught up with Sony, saying Chinese TCL and Hisense are now chasing LG and Samsung closely. The combined global sales volume of LG and Samsung is about 50%, but when broken down by individual companies, Samsung is first, LG second, and TCL third. He also said that variables such as the U.S. restrictions on Chinese semiconductor equipment imports are minimal, and high-quality chips can be sufficiently procured from Taiwan, so they cannot be complacent. He noted that just as LG Electronics (set) and LG Display (components) are vertically integrated, China also has vertical integration with TCL (set) and CSOT (components). He said China has grown remarkably in technology, business models, and other aspects.

Baek said, "Hisense and TCL have caught up to 90% of our technology in the LCD (liquid crystal display) sector," adding, "The remaining 10% is SoC picture quality control capability." He continued, "They have copied TV exteriors and hardware, and only 'experience' remains," emphasizing, "We must provide an overwhelming experience that makes customers think 'I have to use an LG monitor' as soon as they start gaming. China will try, but we will try even harder."

Looking ahead, Executive Director Baek predicted that the trend will be in the 70-inch range. He said that 65 to 75 inches are already the best-selling sizes in major markets such as Korea and the U.S. He acknowledged that some criticisms that "97 inches is too big" are somewhat valid. He mentioned concerns about moving the TV, such as it not fitting in elevators. Baek said, "We do not plan to increase the size beyond 100 inches, and whether in Korea or Europe, the 70-inch range is likely to become the major size."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.