[PConline Miscellaneous] With the increasing saturation of demand for color TV market, coupled with the fierce competition in the industry in recent years, the situation in the color TV industry is grim. With the homogeneity of products, low-price competition continues to take place, and the price of LCD TVs continues to decline. Take the 618 promotion that just passed and the recent 88 Shopping Festival as an example. The prices of many LCD TVs have frequently hit new historical lows, and some 65-inch large-screen TVs can be won for only two or three thousand yuan. It has to be said that the price of LCD TV has reached a bargain price, which is very cheap.
I don’t know if you have noticed that although the price of LCD TVs has been falling, the price of high-end OLED TVs has remained high for a long time and is still maintaining high prices. This uncommon price has also made many consumers stop. However, some new changes have occurred in the market recently.
On the 10th of last month, Skyworth announced that the price of the 55-inch OLED color TV S8A has dropped from 11,999 yuan to 7,999 yuan, while the 65-inch S8A has dropped from 20,999 yuan to 15,999 yuan. Skyworth's high-profile price reduction strategy has made the "high-end" role of OLED TVs confusing. Many consumers speculate that the price war for high-end OLED TVs is about to begin?
In this regard, Skyworth stated that this nearly diving price reduction is actually to promote and popularize OLED TVs, hoping to revitalize the high-end market that has been sluggish for five consecutive years, effectively promote the sinking of technological dividends, and use technology to reshape the industry. At the same time, Wang Zhiguo, chairman of Shenzhen Skyworth-RGB Electronics Co., Ltd., also said that this price reduction measure has certain losses, but for Skyworth, such losses can be regarded as a popularization of OLED investment in the entire industry.
Speaking of the popularization of OLED, indeed, since Sony launched its first OLED TV in 2007, 12 years have passed since the history of OLED TV. Almost every year, people say that this is the year of OLED explosion, especially after Sony returned to the OLED camp in 2017, everyone is more convinced that OLED is the irreversible trend in the future.
But year after year, the so-called OLED explosion year, we still seem to have not seen it. According to the offline monthly monitoring data of Panborui Consulting, the retail volume and retail sales of OLED TVs accounted for 1.0% and 4.3% respectively in the first half of 2019. In other words, LCD TVs are still the mainstream products in the color TV market at present.
The market share of OLED and LCD TVs is so huge that we can't help but be confused. After all, the call for OLED far exceeds that of LCD TVs. Many people even believe that the LCD era is about to pass and OLED will soon become a new ecosystem in the industry. But the facts are right in front of you, OLED is still the era of failing to take over the traditional LCD TV. So, what are the reasons for the low OLED market penetration rate? The main reason is of course the price.
As a country with large LCD panel production. Domestic panel manufacturers invest in high-generation production lines, and a large number of LCD panels have led to the low price of large-sized LCD TVs in the past, which can be said to be "bad price" compared to Europe and the United States. Although OLED TV has been in the industry for more than ten years, it is still a new technology in comparison. The Chinese market cannot produce panels in large quantities. In this way, the price will be difficult to achieve, and there is no way to compete with LCD TVs in terms of price.
But with the changes of the times, the market trend has also begun to undergo a great change. As we can see, current OLEDs have almost become the standard configuration for high-end TVs and mobile phones. First of all, in the field of smart TV, currently Skyworth, Konka , Changhong, Hisense , LG Electronic , Sony, and Philips have launched OLED products. In the field of smartphones, Samsung, Apple, Huawei , LG, OPPO, vivo and others all use OLED screen in high-end products. To a certain extent, this can even be said that without OLED screens, there will be no tickets to enter the high-end market. Recently, major TV brands (Changhong, Konka, Philips, etc.) led by Skyworth have also begun to significantly reduce the price of their OLED TVs. In this way, OLED has officially risen this year and has no basis.In addition, there is good news recently that the panel production factory set up by LG Display in Guangzhou will be mass-produced in the third quarter of this year. This is undoubtedly a good thing for whole machine companies such as Skyworth and Changhong.
In addition to the "price reduction and popularization" measures of traditional TV manufacturers, there are also rumors that traditional mobile phone manufacturers such as Honor and OnePlus are also preparing to enter the TV industry. OnePlus has repeatedly hinted that it will directly point to the high-end market of the TV industry. As the "protagonist" of the current high-end TV screen, OLED must be indispensable for outbound pictures. The addition of new players has added new vitality to the color TV industry and has a certain effect on the "revival" of the entire color TV market.
Although OLED has been only known for many years and is rarely seen, since this year, many companies and industries have begun to take action, which has also allowed people to see the unlimited potential of OLED in the future. Nowadays, many companies use the measures of significantly lowering prices to popularize OLED, which is undoubtedly a good thing for consumers, but for the industry, it may not be very conducive to the future development of the industry.
According to a survey of "shopping considerations" conducted by Panborui Consulting on consumers, product quality is the primary consideration for consumers' shopping, and cost-effectiveness ranks second. In this way, compared to TV manufacturers' simple price reduction promotions to popularize OLEDs, consumers actually value the cost-effectiveness of the product. But you should know that cost-effectiveness does not mean low prices. As a high-end role in the current color TV market, OLED may generally fight price wars with the traditional LCD TV market, which may make the entire industry even more chaotic. Therefore, for long-term considerations, enterprises should keep the high-end color TV market relatively stable so as not to make the future color TV market as "tragic" as it is now.
As for the popularization of OLED, it should be determined by the actual situation. The price offensives that major companies have made huge investments in the price have indeed helped the rapid growth of the high-end market, but at present, it seems that this method is not a long-term solution to improve consumer awareness for high-end products.
Summary: The market space of OLED is undoubtedly very huge. With the growth of demand for OLED in various fields (mobile phones, smart wearables, cars, etc.), it is not impossible for OLED to replace traditional LCD in the future and become the number one overlord. Now, a new round of color TV price war has begun, and high-end OLED TVs are just around the corner.
