When it comes to 100-inch TVs, many people may think of Sony's 100-inch flagship Z9D, which became famous a few years ago, when the top flagship was priced at 500,000 yuan. Only rich people such as Wang Sicong will buy it. In 2020, with Xiaomi releasing a 98-inch Redmi MAX TV with a price of only 19999 yuan, pulling the 100-inch-level super-screen TV to the price segment of 20,000 yuan, in just three years, leading the shipment of 98-inch TV products to increase by nearly 150 times, it can be said that Xiaomi has once again opened up a new market with a product.
The rapid development of the market has allowed manufacturers to begin to compete for this "virgin land" three years ago, especially after the beginning of the Year of the Lunar Tiger in 2022, the 100-inch-level super-large screen market has once again set off a wave of new products: in early March, Hisense released the 98-inch ULED TV 98U7G-PRO, TCL released the giant screen version of QD-Mini LED smart screen 98X9C Pro, on March 17, Xiaomi released the Redmi MAX 100" giant screen TV, The product line of the large screen has been officially expanded to 100 inches. At the press conference, in the face of the market with annual sales of about 700 units, Xiaomi shouted out the slogan of "opening up the TV 100-inch era for Chinese families". This time, can Xiaomi replicate the 98-inch TV surge and once again stage an industry miracle of expanding the entire category of single products?
In fact, even those who are optimistic about the market prospects have to admit that the market size and potential of 100-inch-level super-screen TVs in China are quite limited: before Xiaomi launched the Redmi MAX 98-inch TV and pulled the super-screen market to the level of 20,000 yuan, the shipment volume of only about 400 98-inch TVs in 2019 was negligible; In 2021, under the full follow-up of Redmi, TCL, Hisense, Huawei and other brands, the annual shipment of 98 inches is only 58,700 units, and the shipment of ultra-large-screen TVs has increased by nearly 150 times in 2 years, compared with China's total shipments of nearly 40 million color TVs in 2021.
Is the price too high? Maybe before 2019, but in 2022, the price of 98-inch TV sets has dropped to about 16,000 yuan, even lower than the price of many high-end 65-inch TV products. There are obviously other reasons that restrict the popularity of the super-screen TV market.
First of all, of course, it is a series of problems brought about by the size of the super-large-screen TV itself, including transportation, taking the elevator, entering the home, installation and so on. The length of the large-screen TV packaging box is usually more than 2.5 meters, the width is more than 1.6 meters, not only is it difficult to enter the home elevator, but also through the security door, the corner of the corridor, the unit door and other "obstacles" in the delivery process to smoothly enter the user's home. Users who do not have the conditions to go upstairs can only lift the TV upstairs through cranes, hanging baskets, etc., and the cost will even exceed the actual price of the TV. On the other hand, not only the traditional LCD TV, but also the phenomenon of difficulty in entering the home because the Fresnel anti-light curtain commonly used in laser TV is a rigid structure.
The second point is the impact of large-screen TVs on the home environment. Due to the huge size of the large-screen TV, its sense of presence in the user's home is full, whether it is turned on or not, it occupies a non-negligible position in the home environment. Users who have a higher pursuit of home style, for the sake of design unification, usually choose projection products equipped with lifting curtains to reduce the impact on the home environment when the TV is not turned on.
It is true that projectors are difficult to compete with traditional TVs in terms of image quality, but for 100-inch-level display devices, the visual impact brought by the increase in size is far greater than the improvement of the perception of higher image quality. Although the term "home theater" has become slightly outdated, the series of operations of turning off the lights, closing the curtains, and lowering the curtain when the projector is turned on has undoubtedly created an additional "sense of ceremony" for movie watching, which has played a certain role in replacing the cinema industry that has been seriously affected by the epidemic, and has also made movie lovers feel a rare sense of immersion in the moment of increasingly distant cinemas.
Finally, there is the picture quality level of the super-screen TV itself. Due to cost, market, technology and other factors, the current super-large-screen TV on the display of picture quality technology are at a relatively primary level, brightness, light control, color performance, etc. are usually not comparable to the mainstream size of the high-end TV, in fact, in terms of the volume of the super-large-screen TV, hastily improve the sound and picture quality technology, the increase in additional volume weight and heat, power consumption is also very impressive.
So, for consumers, what does it mean to have a 100-inch TV?
We may wish to calculate: the width of the 98-inch TV screen is 2.17 meters, and the display area is 2.65 square meters; The length of the 100-inch screen is 2.21 meters, 4cm longer than 98 inches, the area is 2.76 square meters, compared to 98 inches The increase is also about 4%, as a comparison, 65 inches to 55 inches, the display area increased by about 40%, 4% of the display area increased, and the improvement in the perception was quite limited.
But from another point of view, the screen size has risen from 98 inches to 100 inches, which is particularly strong for consumers when purchasing. Television has been in double digits for decades, and when TV size first moved towards three digits, the impact on consumers was much stronger than the 4% actual screen size increase. When the 100-inch TV really becomes a mature product for consumers to choose from, whether the consumer is in the face or the manufacturer's publicity strategy, in short, its allure is much greater than the 98-inch. In this way, it is not an exaggeration for Xiaomi to shout the slogan of "opening up the 100-inch era of TV for Chinese families": after all, this may be the first time that most Chinese families have the opportunity to put a 100-inch TV product in their homes.
For Xiaomi, whose market position and market share are at the forefront of the industry, using the scale advantage to leverage the entire product line and even the market of the whole category through cost-effective new products, it is not the first time in history: before Xiaomi launched the 6OLED version of the Xiaomi TV equipped with a 60Hz panel, the market price of the OLED TV was reduced to the 5,000 yuan file, and the sales volume exceeded 10,000 units after 15 days of listing, which not only refreshed the industry record, but also occupied about 50% of the market of China's OLED TV; The Redmi MAX 98-inch version makes the super-screen TV truly a part of the TV market segment. After leading China's color TV industry for three years, Xiaomi's industry status, brand appeal and market competitiveness have long been different from the past, and it is already the mission of the market to open the way for the development of the industry.
In 2021, under the joint action of multiple environmental factors, china's color TV market sales fell by 14%, returning to the level of 2009, and shipments in the international market also fell by 6%, falling to the lowest point in the past six years. At the same time, in 2021, China's TV ownership per 100 households reached a historical high of 121.8 units, in the face of a huge market stock, the price war in the color TV industry is obviously unsustainable, how to seek new technical points and new forms for TV products, has become an urgent problem for every manufacturer to solve. With the breakthrough in screen size, the ultra-large-screen TV has opened up a new track for lcd TV in the Chinese market, and the reason why major manufacturers have made efforts to make super-large-screen products is also here.
However, as mentioned above, the factors restricting the further development of the super-large screen market are not the price and technology, but the size of its own products, and its market size is also destined to be relatively limited. To put it bluntly, most Chinese families are not actually eligible to buy a 100-inch TV. Then, how to effectively reduce costs and increase efficiency, as far as possible to convert a limited number of incremental users, is the focus of xiaomi and even the whole industry to develop the super large-screen TV market.
The development of the color TV market depends on the supply side, that is, the development of the panel industry. From the upstream industry level, after two years of rapid development of 98-inch TV panels, the supply chain has been relatively perfect, LGD, Innolux, Samsung, as well as the mainland BOE, Huaxing Optoelectronics and other manufacturers can provide 98-inch panels, especially Huaxing Optoelectronics and BOE production capacity has increased significantly, providing a strong basis for the sales of 98-inch TVs. According to the current data, Xiaomi 100 inches, including the previous Sony Z9D, is exclusively supplied by Innolux Optoelectronics, whether it is the weak industry scale of the supply chain anti-risk ability, it is also urgent to expand.
The good news is that the 100-inch capacity increase is already on the arrow. For the upstream of the industry, the main difference between 98 inches and 100 inches is that the 98-inch panel is the economic cutting scheme of the 8.5-generation line, while the 100-inch panel is the economic cutting scheme of the 8.6-generation line. Previously, TCL Huaxing, BOE, Huike, Rainbow, Innolux, CLP Panda and other upstream manufacturers have 8.6 generation LCD production lines or start to expand the 8.6 generation line, of which the 10th 8.6 generation line of Changsha Huike has been officially put into production on February 7 this year. Omdia expects the capacity of the 8.6 generation line to increase significantly in 2022, reaching about 25% of the industry's total capacity.
Back to the product itself, although limited by cost and size, although the super screen is difficult to be given more advanced technology, it does not mean that the ultra-large screen TV is not involved in the overall high-end strategy of the home appliance industry. Through the in-depth customization of the software, the large screen can play the advantage of large size to carry more content, and further enhance the user's experience; Improve the priority of commercial functions, so that large screens can serve more commercial scenarios; Look forward to the technological progress of the industry and realize the decentralization of high-end technology; Taking advantage of the high demand for large-screen transportation and carrying out high-end delivery services, measures such as high-end delivery services are conducive to the realization of high-end ultra-large-screen TVs. In fact, many of these initiatives are the high-end value that Xiaomi gave to the Redmi MAX 100-inch TV at the conference.
The launch of the Redmi MAX 100-inch TV, for Xiaomi, from the product level to the market competitors to catch up or even surpass, and the greater value lies in the industry level. Over the years, the recognition of the market has made Millet gradually become the mainstream of the industry: in 2021, Xiaomi ranked fifth in international market shipments, and in the Chinese market, it has been at the top of the industry for three consecutive years. Compared with the veterans of the industry, the "vigor" shown by Xiaomi may become the key to breaking the situation in China's color TV industry in the future.