Samsung and LG have begun butting heads more and more frequently as of late. They have been having their own patent wars, and recently six LG employees were accused and convicted of stealing Samsung technology. It appears that tensions between the two South Korean giants are once again coming to a head as Korean police have raided the headquarters of Samsung’s display unit.
LG claims they didn’t turn Samsung in themselves. LG spokesman Son Young Jon said, “The latest investigation is related to large-sized OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display panel technology, but the police have made the allegation themselves,” in an interview with Bloomberg. If the Korean Police weren’t merely tipped off by LG there must have been a serious investigation into Samsung itself, and there will likely be convictions in this case.
Samsung claims that they had, “no reason to steal other companies’ technology,” simply because they already have, “the world’s best OLED technology.” Unfortunately for Samsung that claim is rather unlikely as they are rather late to join the big screen OLED part, with LG being the market leader in the efficient display technology. LG has been selling OLED TVs in Korea since January and has plans to release the televisions in North America sometime in the first quarter of the year. When it comes to 4k LG has also been a clear leader, already showing off their ability to stream 4k from a smartphone
Samsung doesn’t even have a large OLED on the market yet, and doesn’t plan on releasing in Korea until sometime in the next few months. Samsung also lags behind LG in the overall sales of large displays, with LG pulling in a massive 29% market share. Samsung still manages to pull in a very respectable 26%. Samsung has certainly pushed the market in mobile of OLED putting the display tech in their phones ever since the original entry into the “S” series. It is certainly possible that they have been able to successfully transfer their well documented success in mobile OLEDs into an excellent line of TV’s
This could potentially be a rather severe blow to Samsung, but most likely it will end up similarly to the LG arrest case with insignificant punishments given out. However, it would be a huge blow to the reputation of Samsung so we will make sure to follow this story closely.