On March 30, Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV was released. At present, Samsung China's official website has opened the pre-sale of the new 8K Neo QLED QN700B series TV, of which 55 inches are 15999 yuan, 65 inches are 22999 yuan, and 75 inches are 34999 yuan.
"Nail Technology" noted that the popularity of 8K TVs has always been high, but the market size has been delayed. In the past two years, the market growth rate of 8K TVs has been relatively high, mainly because the development base is very low. According to Gfk data, the size of China's 8K TV market in 2020-2021 is only 51,000 units and 71,000 units, respectively. Aowei Cloud Network expects that in 2022, driven by sports events, the scale of China's 8K TV market is expected to reach 150,000 units.
Even if it can double the growth, the scale of 150,000 units is still very small compared with the annual sales volume of more than 40 million in the Chinese market, only about 0.4%.
For giants like Samsung, the 8K market is an industrial highland, and seizing this highland will help consolidate its high-end brand position and thus build greater global market potential.
Of course, there is also a reality that has to be considered is that Samsung TV is indeed difficult to "go" in the Chinese market, and it is probably only possible to focus on the high-end market such as 8K.
From a technical point of view, the combination of technology such as 8K and Neo QLED determines that this is a high-end product of Samsung. For 8K, the outside world will not be unfamiliar, but for Neo QLED, many people probably do not understand.
"Nail Technology" noted that in fact, Neo QLED is not a general technical concept in the industry, but a technical term dedicated to Samsung. In simple terms, it is a display technology that integrates quantum dot technology and MiniLED technology, and in order to achieve differentiation and ability upgrades, Neo quantum dot processor chips have been added.
According to reports, this year's Neo quantum dot processor introduced an advanced contrast mapping with BLU (backlight unit), which can achieve more precise control of the quantum dot MiniLED light source, the brightness level is increased from the original 12-bit gradient to a 14-bit gradient, and the brightness adaptation range is increased from the original 4096 steps to 4 times the level, reaching 16384 steps.
8K, MiniLED, Neo quantum dot processor... A large number of high-end technologies are stacked on top of each other, and it is difficult to be "beautiful" in the price of such products. Nail Technology noted that compared with domestic brands, Samsung's pricing is significantly higher.
For example, the same is the combination of 8K + quantum dots + Min LED, TCL 65-inch 8K flagship X9 is priced at 16999 yuan, 75-inch is priced at 29999 yuan, and the new Samsung of the same size 8K is about 5000 yuan more expensive than TCL.
In addition, "Nail Technology" noted that the Samsung 8K Neo QLED QN700B also launched a 55-inch version of the product, which was quite surprising. Because, from the perspective of industry and consumption trends, Samsung does not seem to be "going with the flow".
First of all, 55 inches is no longer a "big screen", and the high-end large screen is the entire industry and consumer trend.
In 2021, the average size of China's color TV is 54.6 inches, and in 2022, it is expected to be 56.1 inches, and 55 inches will be lower than the average size of consumption. In addition, from the perspective of the market, since 2021, although the overall retail volume is declining, but the large-size color TV has grown against the trend, the retail volume of 65-inch and above products has accounted for 34.5%, an increase of 9.5 percentage points over last year, and the key layout of the large-screen market of more than 65 inches is the consensus of color TV manufacturers.
Secondly, the pricing of nearly 16,000 yuan is inconsistent with the downward trend of the price of the entire market.
Affected by the price fluctuations of upstream panels, the average price of color wire channels in January was 2383 yuan, down 7.6% from December 2021, and the average price in February was 2222 yuan, down 13.9% from December 2021; the average price of offline channels in January was 5411 yuan, down 7.3% from December 2021, and the average price in February was 4915 yuan, down 15.8% from December 2021. Taking online as an example, the price of 55-inch products from January to February 2022 was 2208 yuan, down 451 yuan year-on-year.
Finally, the 8K product pushed the 55-inch version, and the gap between the high-end 4K product is difficult to open.
It is generally believed that the experience advantage of 8K high-resolution TV on large-size screens will be more obvious, and the experience of "grievances" to 55 inches will be inseparable from the experience of high-end 4K products. Because the price of 4K products is obviously advantageous, it is difficult for 55-inch 8K products to be competitive in the market.
Overall, Samsung still has strong technical competitiveness in the high-end market, but how to transform technical advantages into market advantages requires Samsung to think more deeply. (Nail Technology original, reprint must indicate the source: Nail Technology Network)