Workers in the projection industry, in recent years, have more or less had a feeling that the topic of mercury lamp projectors (lamp projectors) is getting less and less. As a result, many industry experts and mainstream media have also discussed: will the lamp projector withdraw from the historical stage?
Bulb light source may not be able to keep up with the needs of the times?
The author observed that in recent years, few manufacturers are willing to lay out new "mercury lamp" projectors, looking back at the new product launches of major enterprises in the past, laser light sources have become the protagonists of most projection market segments, and it is almost difficult for new lamp projectors to become the focus of attention. The projection market has become a one-man show for new light sources.
The reduction or even disappearance of new products will doom the "shrinking" fate of the mercury lamp stock market from the source. Especially in the special situation of the past two years, the traditional demand for projection represented by mercury lamps in the domestic market has shrunk seriously, and the sales volume of individual brands has lost more than half.
In addition, the biggest problem of mercury light sources is brightness attenuation, which directly affects the projection screen effect, while high heat dissipation requirements, explosion lights and other phenomena are resisted by users. It can be simply understood that the higher the brightness, the shorter the life span, which is the fate of the lamp projector. The laser light source is essentially a semiconductor, which is relatively stable. In fact, from the actual scene, the light bulb light source may not be able to keep up with the needs of the times.
Data argument! Laser up, bulb down
According to IDC data, in the first half of 2019, mercury lamp home projectors accounted for 7% of the domestic consumer market, while in the first half of 2020 fell to 4%, this year laser light source sales for the first time exceeded mercury lamp products. In the Q3 of the same year, laser projection gained 35% growth in the business projection market, and it has begun to show the momentum of replacing mercury lamp projection.
Affected by the special stage, China's projector market showed a decline in 2020, with a total shipment of 4.17 million units, and laser projectors fell the least among the three major light sources at the projection product end, while lamp projectors fell by more than 35%.
Throughout the past, sales of bulb models have fallen from 400,000 to 500,000 units to the expected tens of thousands or even less units in 2021. At the same time, the sales scale of laser projectors, LED intelligent projection, laser TVs, etc., has shifted from tens of thousands of units to a new target of millions of units in 2021. RUNTO expects shipments in the Chinese mainland laser projection market to grow by more than 40% year-on-year for the full year 2021.
Mercury lamp projection is bound to be eliminated?
The advantage of mercury lamp projectors is the price. The most stressed sector in the projection market is "retail, business, and conference". This piece is also the "main" battlefield of mercury lamp projection, accounting for the vast majority of mercury lamp projection domestic market sales. Mercury lamp projection has always faced a problem of breaking through the bottleneck: that is, the dominant competitiveness of the retail business market relies too much on the "cheap" large-screen image. This makes it difficult for new technologies to be directly supported on "first-line impulse" products, such as smart focus, ultra-short focus, high-life light sources, high-resolution trends, intelligent applications, wireless projection technology and so on.
The advantages of mercury lamp projectors are gradually being dismantled. In recent years, some companies have successively explored the price of laser projection with 3000+ brightness, which has formed a squeeze on the "traditional retail lamp projection market" within the projection market.
At the same time, domestic mainstream projection brands have embraced new light source technology to accelerate product iteration and upgrading. Under the competition, the development speed of projection technology is beyond people's imagination, projection era Xiao Xiao said, mercury lamp as an "ancient" light source technology, facing the entire "human lighting and light source industry to the semiconductor route across the 'big' crisis." That is, although the industrial chain of mercury lamp products is mature, it is in the stage of "industrial chain retreat", and the advantages of laser projection are gradually formed, and mercury lamp projection will inevitably be gradually eliminated.
Postscript: LED light source is getting brighter and brighter, laser light source is getting cheaper and cheaper, mercury lamp space is getting smaller and smaller, mercury lamp projector market scale shrinkage and even exit will be irreversible, a new round of industry technology and brand innovation shuffle is about to be staged, as for the post-laser era, how to subdivide application scenarios from new segments, how to break through the layout of product supply, how to deal with the new situation, will continue to test the wisdom of projection enterprises.