Samsung recently announced its plans to suspend the production of all LCD panels by the end of this year. It was reported that the company took the step due to the falling demand for LCD TVs and the oversupply of LCD panels. Now, a new report claims otherwise. Apparently, the company’s decision also stems from its plans to shift its focus to make QD-OLED TVs.

According to MyDrivers, the South Korean electronics giant wants to shift its focus from making LCD panels to manufacture QD-OLED panels. Samsung wants to compete with LG’s OLED TVs and bring TVs that exceed the picture quality and durability that’s offered by its Korean rival. QD-OLED panels are said to have higher brightness, more color volume, and, more importantly, improved lifespan.

QD-LED screens have a longer lifespan, lower burn-in issues

Samsung’s QD-OLED panels are said to have a lifespan of 1 million hours, which is much longer than the lifespan of usual OLED screens. The new technology mixes OLED with quantum dots to emit only one color before passing through a color filter, thereby reducing production costs. The company will reportedly use iridium phosphide instead of using the toxic cadmium material to make Quantum Dot OLED screen panels.

Samsung also claims that QD-OLED panels will be less susceptible to burn-in problems, something that’s prevalent in current-generation OLED TVs, especially when watching live TV. Even though the new technology sounds promising, it is still a “laboratory product” as of now, and it could be a few years before we see it in actual TVs in stores.

The company had announced last year that it would invest around $11 billion to upgrade its LCD manufacturing plants to make QLED screens. Apparently, QD-OLED screens are cheaper to make when compared to OLED screens, but the pricing of QD-OLED TVs will still be higher, at least initially, due to technical reasons. In the meantime, the company is also investing capital in making microLED TVs.

Over the next few years, we could see Samsung shift to QLED TVs even in the low-end category, and use QD-OLED and microLED technologies for its high-end TVs.