LG Electronics has only managed to sell 10 of its luxury new rollable OLED TVs since the model went on sale in South Korea in October.
LG’s Signature OLED R TV is one of the most impressive TVs that money can buy, thanks to its unique ability to unfurl from a compact base and then hide itself away again when not in use. The mechanical design was hailed as revolutionary when it was first unveiled at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, and was said to be the culmination of years of research LG Display has made into creating flexible OLED panels.
The design is certainly ambitious and so was the price tag LG slapped onto it. It retails for 100 million Korean won, which translates to about £60,000. It is yet to be offered for sale outside of South Korea, despite LG making noises about bringing the TV to other markets.
The high price tag is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why LG has only been able to sell 10 of the TVs so far. Korea JoongAng Daily, which first reported the news, said this figure hasn’t officially been confirmed by LG. However, the company reportedly told the publication that its priority with the Signature R OLED TV is not to reach as many consumers as possible. It’s a statement that sounds like a tacit admission that the 10-unit sale number is close to the mark.
The tally of sales looks all the more paltry considering that LG reportedly sold more than two million OLED TVs overall in 2020.
UBI Research Yi Choong-hoon told Korea JoongAng Daily that while the price tag definitely hinders sales, durability may also be a concern for buyers given the Signature R OLED’s mechanically-complex structure.
"LG might consider the release as a symbolic showcase for future-centric technology," he said.
So it would seem that rollable OLED will be a technology of the future for some time yet. For now, it appears LG is focused more on the traditional form-factor with its OLED TVs. This year, the company announced a new, brightness-enhanced LG G1 Series OLED TV, available in 83-inches for the first time, and a brand new A1 entry-level OLED TV that aims to bring the technology to buyers with lower budgets.
It hasn’t announced any updates to the Signature R Series.
