Samsung Is About To Leave LCDs In The Dust

It looks like LCDs are on the way out, at least as far as Samsung Display is concerned. The company, which is a subsidiary of Samsung dedicated to making displays for all sorts of devices, has announced plans to phase out LCD production by the end of the year. That's a fairly big shift for Samsung Display, though not an entirely unexpected one as demand for LCDs seems to be falling.

A Samsung Display spokesperson confirmed the move to Reuters today. Samsung Display will shut down four LCD production lines – two each in South Korea and China – by the end of 2020, with the spokesperson saying that Samsung will continue to fulfill orders until the end of the year "without any issues."

Once it phases out LCD production, Samsung Display will look to upgrade one of its production lines in South Korea to mass produce quantum dot displays. ZDNet notes that most of the LCD panels Samsung Display still makes are generally for Samsung's TVs, so once LCD production ends, we can expect a shift to quantum dot OLED displays in Samsung's televisions.

ZDNet also reports that existing personnel working on Samsung Display's LCD production lines will move to OLED and quantum dot display production, so it sounds like there won't be many layoffs as a result of this shift (if there are any at all). With that in mind, though, Reuters reports that Samsung hasn't determined what the future operations of its LCD production lines in China will be, so there's still some uncertainty there.

With the company saying it will invest 13.1 trillion won into its production facilities and research, it sounds like Samsung Display is full steam ahead on quantum dot displays. We'll see what happens from here, but the days of LCDs are certainly numbered when it comes to Samsung Display's production lines.