LG Electronics has reportedly decided to discontinue its novel rollable OLED TV, the LG Signature OLED R, in order to focus on alternative premium models such as its transparent Signature OLED T model.
That's according to a report from OLED-INFO, which reminds us that the company launched the world’s first rollable OLED television back in early 2019, months after showing off the concept at that year's Consumer Electronics Show. LG later set up a small but dedicated production line for the model, and began selling it in its home nation of South Korea in 2020, promising to bring it to international markets.
The LG Signature OLED R TV was 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, and was said to be the culmination of years of research LG Display has made into creating flexible OLED panels.
The 65-inch Signature OLED R TV offered three viewing options, including full view, line view (where a small section of the display was visible to show some basic apps such as the weather and news headlines), and zero view. At the time, it was hailed as a radical new form factor for televisions, but it was in reality a wholly experimental concept.
The LG Signature OLED R TV came with a huge price tag of around $100,000 when it first went on sale, so it’s unlikely the company ever sold many units. Indeed, while LG has never revealed how many of the rollable TVs were sold, Korean media reported in March 2021 that it has only managed to ship 10 since the product was launched 18 months earlier.
It was an ambitious design and although the price tag was later reduced to around $75,000, the TV never went on sale anywhere outside of South Korea.
The LG Signature OLED R TV remains the only rollable OLED TV the company has ever released, and it never received an update during the five years it was on sale, so the decision to sunset the product isn’t all that surprising.
It could well be that creating rollable OLED displays is simply too challenging, or maybe LG decided that the concept isn’t something that consumers really want. Either way, the company has decided to close down the Signature OLED R TVs production line, so that appears to be the last we’ll see of this unique concept.
