In a trance, 2022 has ushered in the second month, the Lunar New Year has arrived, and 2021 seems to be still yesterday. Looking back at 2021, before the stock era and the growth bottleneck brought about by the fading dividend, and after the cost pressure caused by the price increase of panel chips, the color TV industry can be described as difficult. At the same time, the change of consumption concept and the acceleration of the high-end process are also testing the upstream and downstream manufacturers of the industrial chain.
With the end of CES2022, the new competition in the color TV industry in 2022 has officially begun, and the new trends and new patterns of the color TV industry are also coming.
First, the market demand is saturated, and oversized TVs will become a new growth point
2021 is undoubtedly a difficult year for China's color TV industry, in 2021, the retail volume of China's color TV industry market reached the lowest in 12 years, falling below the 40 million mark to 38.35 million units, down 13.8% year-on-year. The reason for the shrinkage of retail sales is mainly due to the high saturation of the color TV market.
According to the data, in 2013, China's color TV 100 households owned more than 115 units / 100 households, in 2021 it reached 121.8 units / 100 households, and under the influence of the fading of the demographic dividend and real estate dividend, the new demand for color TVs has become saturated. At the same time, in the case of the peak of the Internet dividend, the replacement demand for color TVs is gradually saturated.
Although the overall demand of the market is stable, with the upgrading of consumption, the pursuit of consumers' audiovisual experience and the demand for high-quality content continue to rise, and in the environment where 4K ultra-high-definition content has achieved initial popularization, the stronger listening experience brought by the large screen has aroused the pursuit of consumers. Therefore, there are still significant incremental opportunities for large-size products, which can be clearly seen from the data, in 2021, the retail sales volume of 75+ inches TVs increased by 69.7% year-on-year, the retail sales volume of 80+ inches TVs increased by 114.8% year-on-year, and the retail volume of the high-end market of more than 8,000 yuan increased by 41.3% year-on-year.
Obviously, the "big screen" has gradually become a major consensus in the current color TV industry, and the trend of the market getting bigger, the better is gradually deepening. At present, TCL, Hisense, Skyworth, LG and Samsung and other brands of domestic and foreign color TV brands, without exception, are vigorously laying out large-screen high-end TVs. In 2022, large-screen TVs will still be the main demand for consumers to replace new ones, and the retail proportion of large-screen TVs will also accelerate.
Second, miniLED has fully exploded, opening the road to scale growth
2021 is also known as the first year of the commercial use of miniLED, from CES2021, major color TV manufacturers have appeared in miniLED products, miniLED officially entered the consumer market. At the moment when liquid crystal display technology is gradually approaching the ceiling, miniLED backlight technology makes up for the disadvantages of traditional LCD TVs, allows LCD TVs to re-enter the high-end market, and also attracts the attention of domestic and foreign color TV brands.
At present, the miniLED track has gathered players, in addition to the first layout of the miniLED track of TCL, Skyworth, Hisense, Huawei and other domestic brands have launched miniLED backlit TVs in 2021, and industry giants Samsung and LG have also joined.
On the new track of miniLED, domestic brands are undoubtedly at the forefront. MiniLED backlit TVs still need to rely on LCD panels, and after Japanese and Korean manufacturers have successively launched the LCD market, China's LCD panel production has occupied 67% of the market.
Relying on the perfect panel supply chain, domestic TV brands have obvious advantages in the miniLED track. In terms of the core technology of miniLED, domestic TV brands are also the frontrunners, the industry's earliest layout of miniLED TCL, has mastered a number of independent core technologies of miniLED, in CES2022 TCL is to show its innovative QD-miniLED technology, so that the peak brightness of miniLED backlit TV increased to 2000 ~ 4000nits. Another display giant, BOE, also has a major breakthrough in miniLED, which has achieved mass production of active glass-based miniLED backlight products and is the first to be installed in skyworth MiniLED TV Q72.
It is foreseeable that with the maturity of miniLED technology, the price of terminal products will be further explored, and at the same time, driven by the trend of high-end, miniLED will usher in a full outbreak in 2022. According to Omdia, shipments of Mini LED backlit TVs are expected to reach 11 million units by 2022. The domestic color TV brand sits on the dual advantages of panel supply and technology, and will achieve the cornering overtaking of Japanese and Korean brands on the new track of miniLED.
Third, the brand pattern adjustment, OLED TV popularity ushered in an inflection point
In addition to the outbreak of miniLED, judging from the signal released at CES2022, this year may be a new inflection point in the popularity of OLED TVs.
As the hegemon of the OLED TV field, LG occupies more than 60% of the OLED TV market in 2021, and at CES2022, LG released a new olED EVO panel, which has a considerable improvement in peak brightness and picture color performance, while LG also released two new series of G2 and C2. Of course, the most noteworthy thing is that LG has added two new sizes of 97 inches and 42 inches, as the only supplier of large-size OLED panels, this move will definitely affect the entire OLED TV market.
97-inch OLED can be used to make up for the lack of OLED large-size TVs in the high-end TV market, to deal with the competition of LCD TV 98-inch products head-on, and to conform to the trend of large screens. The 42-inch OLED panel is very likely to further reduce the price of OLED TVs. At present, there are manufacturers who have pressed the price of OLED TVs to the price range of 4,000 yuan, and in 2022, we are very likely to see the price of OLED TVs drop to 2,000 or even 3,000 yuan.
In addition to LG, Samsung is also at CES2022, through the QD-OLED new technology, high-profile layout OLED TV market. The new QD-OLED technology will be OLED and quantum dot technology to integrate, so that the OLED brightness, color gamut, etc. have been comprehensively improved, from the current news, Samsung QD-OLED new technology compared to LG's WOLED technology, in the picture quality level of high quality is obvious.
Of course, QD-OLED is a new technology after all, there are many uncertainties in production capacity and price in a short period of time, and the probability is only used in high-end products, which is obviously not conducive to Samsung's comprehensive layout of OLED. Therefore, according to external reports, Samsung is very likely to purchase OLED panels like LG, and launch a TV equipped with LG OLED panels as soon as June this year. With the strong entry of Samsung, the pattern of the OLED TV market will also usher in a new change.
The maturity of technology, the strategic adjustment of the industry's leading brands and the entry of new forces, driven by many factors, the popularity of OLED is just around the corner, while the competition between the LCD camp and the OLED camp in the TV market will become more and more fierce.
Fourth, the price of laser TV is down, and popularization is just around the corner
In 2021, when color TV sales are falling overall, the counter-trend growth of laser TVs is undoubtedly worthy of everyone's attention. In the past few years, the development trend of laser TV can be said to be obvious to all, and the sales volume is also quite rapid, according to statistics, the compound growth rate of laser TV in 2015-2020 is as high as 181%. In 2021, China's laser TV market shipments reached 400,000 units, an increase of nearly 50% over the same period last year.
Laser TV can achieve such rapid growth is not surprising, as we mentioned earlier, large-size TV has become the consensus of the market and industry in recent years, and laser TV has an unparalleled advantage of traditional TV in terms of large size. At the technical level, in just a few years, laser TV has entered the three-color era from monochromatic and two-color, showing certain technical advantages in color effect and color gamut coverage.
In terms of market pattern, in addition to the Chinese brands led by Hisense taking the lead in layout and rapidly developing laser TVs, in the past two years, Samsung, Sony and LG have also accelerated the layout of laser displays and launched laser display products in the Chinese market at the same time. Of course, in the laser display technology track, Chinese companies are undoubtedly at the forefront, in the list of top 100 laser display companies, Chinese companies accounted for 66%, and in patented technology, Chinese companies are also far ahead. At present, Chinese enterprises have established a relatively complete industrial chain in the field of laser display.
With the improvement of the industrial chain and the innovation of technology, the price of tricolor laser TV is also further exploring, and there are already domestic brands that have lowered the price of tricolor laser TV to less than 20,000 yuan, and such prices have been well competitive. In 2022, when the market pattern and consumer demand are constantly changing, the development of laser TV is worth looking forward to, and the high-end TV market will usher in a new pattern of miniLED, OLED and laser display.
Fifth, the scene and intelligence continue to deepen, and the product ushers in new competition
With the development of intelligence, home life shows a trend of scenario-based, and products are no longer independent individuals, but can be integrated into consumers' life scenes. With the blessing of AIoT, TVs have shown more functions and values, and the connection between TVs and smart homes, life scenes, and people has become more and more sophisticated.
Making TV no longer just an entertainment device to see and listen, but to meet the diversified and scenario-based needs of consumers, has become an important direction for color TV companies to upgrade their brand value, and has gradually become another new growth point for TV under the trend of demand saturation.
It is precisely because of the general trend of scenario-based and intelligent, TCL, Hisense, Skyworth and other established color TV companies are actively building ecosystems. At the same time, mobile phones and Internet companies with rich ecological resources have also entered the field of large-screen TELEVISION, and in recent years, Huawei, Honor, OPPO, etc. are deepening their layout in the field of television, and more Internet companies will join in the future. Of course, not only domestic enterprises, foreign color TV companies are also actively following up. At CES2022, Sony launched the Bravia Cam camera for TV design during the release period, which is used to deepen the linkage between the TV and people and the scene.
Therefore, in 2022, in addition to seeing the competition in the technical strength of color TV companies, we can also see their competition in intelligent experience and ecological experience, and products that meet the diversified and scenario-based needs of consumers will surely get higher product added value.
brief summary
2022 has arrived, the epidemic is still continuing, the chip shortage is still not alleviated, it seems that the entire market environment is still not optimistic enough. However, the brilliance of miniLED, the continuous development of OLED, the huge potential of laser TVs and the more possibilities brought by AIoT have made the TV industry full of hope in 2022. Although the TV industry is no longer the blue ocean era of rapid growth, whether it is the technological innovation of established enterprises or the product innovation of cutting-edge brands, it is continuously injecting new vitality into the industry.