Samsung hits major setbacks on road to first-gen microLED TVs

The first generation of Samsung microLED TVs may still be scheduled to release in the second half of 2020, but things are said to be getting quite tense behind the scenes. Assembly line yield rates remain low, the final products are difficult to repair with any notion of consistency, and millions of components that should have already been procured in spring are nowhere to be found. That's according to a new report out of Samsung's home country.

It's not that the company was expecting smooth sailing from day one, but it turns out that microLED TVs are hardly the easiest target for mass manufacture. And that's without even starting to account for the coronavirus crisis and its ongoing impacts on the global economy that are hardly working in Samsung's favor.

As it turns out, making microLED TVs is hard

Much of the technical concerns surrounding the project stem from Samsung's microLED diode transfer processes. Namely, those still leave something to be desired on the accuracy front, resulting in highly variable factory yields. Realizing that too much of your product output is defective is never a good thing, particularly not when it comes to something as expensive as microLED TVs.

None of the above spells good news for Samsung's short-term market prospects. Especially since its 2020 TV strategy is bullish to the point of blind optimism. As things stand right now, Samsung will be forced to greenlight additional microLED investments in hopes of addressing at least some of the factors that are currently holding it back.

Samsung has been showing off its microLED TVs over the past year. It introduced the 88 and 150-inch models at the Consumer Electronics Show 2020 back in January. It intends to launch the microLED TVs in the second half of this year as initially planned.