Dubai: The battle for TV form formats is brewing as manufacturers focus on a number of technologies and operating systems against each other in the marketplace.

Samsung will run all its TVs starting this year on Tizen operating system and LG has its own upgraded WebOS. Panasonic has formed an alliance with Mozilla to bring Firefox OS while Sony, Sharp, Toshiba and Philips are turning to Android TV.

“There is a war going on in the form factor. LG will focus on 4K OLED (organic light emitting diode) with better resolution and bigger sizes. This year will be good for LG to improve its premium image in the industry,” J.D. Lee, general manager of the TV department at LG Electronics Gulf, told Gulf News.

He said that ultra high-definition TV, also known as 4K LED TVs, will become more common this year and in smaller sizes — 40 and 42 inches. UHD will replace Full HD TV in first half of this year.

Vinod Nair, general manager of Samsung Gulf Electronics’ CTV Business, said that the forecast for UHD and large-sized panels are going to grow dramatically this year. Whoever captures that market will sustain a growth in the marketplace.

LG grew 26 per cent in volume wise and 2014 was a “good year” for LG UAE, Lee said, and added that OLED fuelled three per cent growth. More than 40 per cent of total TV sales were in 4K format.

LG aims to ship 600,000 OLED panels in 2015 and 1.5 million in 2016.

According to Display Search, 16.3 million 4K TVs were sold in 2014 and it will grow 301 per cent to 49.1 million sets in 2016.

The biggest growth is going to come from North America with 793 per cent, followed by Latin America with 622 per cent and MEA (Middle East and Africa) with 594 per cent. MEA sold 0.2 million units in 2014 and it will grow to 1.3 million units in 2016.

For OLED displays, Lee said that LG will become “very aggressive” in production as yields have improved to the level that could awaken demand for consumers for premium products without the huge barrier of pricing.

Apart from these, many manufacturers are turning to a new TV technology known as quantum dots to put consumers in a state of flux.

Quantum dots are just a new film added to an LED screen to produce deeper, brightness and richer colours and to withstand the challenge posed by OLED technology.

“Companies are focusing on better picture quality with HDR [High Dynamic Range] and wider colour gamut with quantum dot technology. The quality of LED TV is improving this year and 4K TVs are getting cheaper,” Sweta Dash, senior director for research and display at research firm IHS.

Colour gamut

Lee said that quantum dot technology requires the LED lamp at the back while OLED is a self-discharging mechanism with organic materials.

He said that LG will improve its picture colour quality via wide colour gamut (WCG) technology in UHD TVs. WCG is the combination of software and chip. It is less expensive than quantum dot technology. It will give more colour reproduction.

Nair said that Samsung is the only manufacturer who does not use cadmium in quantum dot technology as it is not environmentally friendly.

Samsung has named its quantum dot TVs running on Tizen operating systems SUHD.

He said that the picture quality is two times better than the OLED and the manufacturing cost is only around 50 per cent of OLED.

Lee sees OLED TVs remaining in the premium segment but said that quantum dots are just many ways to improve colour range in UHD TVs.

He said that LED contrast ratio cannot be better than OLED even though LG is also launching its quantum dot TVs known as ColourPrime UHD TVs. LG will launch its quantum dot TVs in March and Samsung in May.

LG bets big on 4K OLED as the future of display technology while Sony and Samsung have opted out of OLED. Nair said that quantum dot is going to be the next big thing in UHD TV technology and Samsung’s bet will be on this technology.

“If there was a demand for OLED, we would have put an effort behind it. We have launched OLED TVs, but consumers are not in love with the technology because of the cost and the wow factor they are not expecting,” he said.

Dash said that quantum dot sits between LED TV and OLED TV but differs from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Sharp has launched its own technology called Quattron Pro by adding yellow to the conventional primary colours of red, green and blue.

Fumio Yamaguchi, managing director at Sharp Middle East and Africa, said that by adding yellow in a pixel, the colour range expands. Yellow, cyan (blue), and gold are beautifully reproduced.

Home connectivity

He said that it can match a 4K TV resolution as Quattron Pro generates four times more luminance peaks per pixel than Full HD. Therefore, it results in 3840 x 2160 luminance peaks in total, which is equivalent to the number of luminance peaks for 4K TV.

Regarding the operating systems, Nair said Tizen is an open OS platform and will be easier for developers to develop apps as home connectivity is going to gather pace.

When asked which OS will gain traction as Android TVs are also going to be launched, he said that it depends on the consumers’ choice and needs. Since Samsung is the number one for the past nine years, “we know what consumers want and their expectations. This year will be the year of UHD as it has become affordable. The switch from Full HD to 4K will be faster than the switch from conventional TV to Full HD,” he said.

Lee said that WebOS is easy to use and search, and for multitasking. On why Apple hasn’t launched Apple TV despite rumours for the past many years, he said from an industry perspective, Smart TV is not the same as the smartphone or tablet industry.

“Personally I am not a big fan of Android TV,” he said and added that he was in charge of Google TV for LG in Korea for three years.

“I had a lot of discussions with Google and LG used to be the number one in Google TV in China, Korea and the US. Google TV has already disappeared after Google launched Chrome Cast. I don’t think Google TV will become an industry standard as LG and Samsung has its own proprietary user platforms,” he said.

With Internet of Things expected to gain traction, Dash from IHS said that every device is going to be connected and the user interfaces of Smart TVs are going to be open, simple and connected.