Today, everyone has to have a smart phone, and every family needs a smart TV. Since LeTV and Xiaomi released their own smart TV products in 2013, the domestic smart TV trend has been on the rise for more than 7 years. So far, the penetration rate of smart TVs in the entire TV market has approached 100%. However, since my country's color TV production and sales exceeded the 50 million mark in 2016, the industry has shown growth weakness. According to data from Aowei Cloud Network, the retail scale of China's color TV market reached 50.89 million units in 2016, but it dropped to 47.52 million units in 2017. Later, in 2018 and 2019, the retail volume of color TVs rose slowly, but the corresponding retail sales fell sharply.
(Data from Aowei Cloud Network)
Behind the peculiar phenomenon of not increasing revenue is the reality that the entire market has fallen into a fierce price war. However, this situation has changed significantly in 2020. As a result, the epidemic has dealt a considerable blow to the offline channels of smart TVs, but it has also greatly increased the utilization rate of smart TVs by users. Requirements have increased; secondly, by 2020, the main demand driver for the smart TV industry has become renewal and secondary purchases; thirdly, affected by the epidemic, electronic components such as LCD panels in the upstream of the smart TV industry have appeared in multiple rounds. Rising prices have led to a general increase in smart TV prices. Under the combined influence of many factors, the entire smart TV industry is accelerating toward a larger size, smarter, and better experience. In this process, the market's focus has obviously begun to shift to high-end.
International giants occupy high-end home courts
In the high-end smart TV market in my country and even the world, the dominant players are still Sony, Samsung, LG, and these international brands. Among them, Sony will ship 1.08 million units in the Chinese market in 2020, which is even higher than Huawei (including Honor).
The so-called high-end smart TV focuses on the three aspects of "high, large and intelligent", among which "high" means high picture quality, "large" means large size, and "intelligent" means intelligence. At present, the only way international brands such as Sony and Samsung can really open the gap with domestic manufacturers lies in the aspect of "high picture quality." Comparing sizes, domestic manufacturers can also easily make giant TVs of more than 100 inches; in terms of intelligence, it is also difficult to open a substantial gap between major manufacturers.
The long-term accumulation of display technology by manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung has enabled them to do better than domestic manufacturers in terms of visual experience. Superimposing its long-standing high-end brand image, this is the basis for international brands to have a higher right to speak in China's high-end market.
However, this foundation is far from being as strong as it seems on the surface. In recent years, the display technology of major domestic smart TV manufacturers has made rapid progress. In terms of OLED, QLED, Mini LED, HDR, and 8K high resolution, the gap between domestic manufacturers and international brands is rapidly closing. Especially in the bottom display panel field, the rapid rise of domestic manufacturers such as BOE, CLP Panda, and China Star Optoelectronics has given domestic TV manufacturers more and more confidence to get rid of external dependence.
High-end brand image of course needs a long time of precipitation, built on the basis of providing excellent quality and excellent experience for a long time. However, excellent marketing strategies can be of great help to the establishment of high-end brands. In terms of quality, experience, etc., domestic manufacturers can also achieve a surpassing international brands as long as they have the heart and localization advantages.
The competitiveness of traditional TV manufacturers continues to increase
In the domestic high-end smart TV market, traditional domestic TV manufacturers have become strong challengers.
Domestic traditional TV manufacturers generally have decades of industry accumulation, and have a solid foundation in services, channels, brands, and technology. For example, TCL has its own display panel manufacturer Huaxing Optoelectronics, and Hisense has continued to invest in the field of laser display for more than ten years, and so on. Therefore, some traditional domestic manufacturers already have the ability to fight against international brands in the high-end market.
And the gradual cannibalization of the low-end market by smartphone manufacturers such as Xiaomi has also forced traditional manufacturers to accelerate the pace of impacting the high-end market.
In the past, international brands were entrenched in the high-end market, and later there was a fierce price war in the middle and low-end markets. Traditional TV manufacturers are in a dilemma of being blocked by the front and chased by the back. For them, instead of entangled in the middle and low-end market with manufacturers such as Xiaomi, it is better to fight hard to enter the high-end market and engage in real money-making business.
As a result, in recent years, we have seen that traditional TV manufacturers have become more aggressive in the high-end market. TCL has successively released a number of 8K smart TVs and giant screen TVs; Hisense will release three large-size laser smart TVs in one go in 2020.
But what makes the traditional TV manufacturers feel quite annoying is that Xiaomi has not stopped at the low-end market. These aggressive emerging players are also looking at the cake of the high-end market.
Smartphone manufacturers are aggressively attacking
Today, it is a foregone conclusion that the major smart phone giants will continue to pour into the smart TV market, because this is because they need to expand their own AIoT ecosystem. Xiaomi can be regarded as the leading brother. Luotu technology data shows that in 2020, Xiaomi (including Redmi) smart TV shipments will reach 9 million units, which is the actual annual sales crown. With the more than 7 million of the second tier Hisense, Skyworth, and TCL, it has opened a relatively obvious gap.
While using "machine sea tactics" to crush sales of other manufacturers, Xiaomi is also eyeing the cake of the high-end market. Starting from 2020, a clear "dual-brand strategy" will be implemented. The Redmi brand is responsible for the ultimate price, the Xiaomi brand is responsible for impacting the high-end market, and the Xiaomi brand has successively launched transparent TVs and master series, all priced at more than 10,000 yuan.
Xiaomi is not alone. Starting from the launch of the "smart screen" in 2019, Huawei has held high the banner of "smartness", first targeting the high-end market. Huawei's play is equally powerful. From scratch, in just over a year, Huawei has been promoted to the top 10 in domestic market shipments. In addition to Xiaomi and Huawei, OPPO has also become an emerging player in the domestic smart TV market. Relying on its strong supply chain advantages, it has also made considerable progress.
In short, smart phone manufacturers are also very interested in the high-end smart TV market, and have successively sounded the charge to attack the high-end market. With their brutal performance in the smartphone market, international brands and traditional manufacturers should indeed be vigilant.
The horn of the war has sounded
Starting from the second half of 2020, the center of gravity of the entire smart TV market has clearly begun to skew towards high-end. Falling volume and rising prices are a strong signal of high-end. Aowei Cloud predicts that in 2021, the retail volume of China's color TV market will reach 43.96 million units, down 1.2% year-on-year, and the retail sales will reach 131.1 billion yuan, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year. Facts confirm this prediction. The monitoring data of Aowei Cloud Network shows that in January 2021, the offline color TV market retail volume was 722,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%, and retail sales were 3.30 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase. 17.6%, the average price was 4573 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.3%. Under the obvious trend of high-end, the high-end smart TV market has become a battleground for military strategists. Heroes from all walks of life are eagerly rushing, and the war is about to start.
In this context, at the end of February this year, Redmi released the Redmi MAX 86, a super large-screen smart TV for only 7,999 yuan. It is more like drawing a bottom line for the battle of high-end smart TVs. The overall quality of size, picture quality, and experience is lower than that of Redmi MAX 86, and it is difficult to be called a real "high-end". At the same time, under the obvious trend of high-end, Redmi releases such a smart TV, which is equivalent to sounding the clarion call for high-end wars.
This battle is destined to be brilliant, because the heroes of all walks of life are not weak. International brands such as Sony and Samsung have strong technical strength; traditional manufacturers such as Hisense and Skyworth have a solid foundation; emerging giants such as Xiaomi and Huawei are developing rapidly. In this battle, no matter who wins or loses, in the fierce market competition, users can enjoy the manufacturers' better products and services.