According to TrendForce, in 2021, TV brands will face rising panel prices, rising prices and shortages of related semiconductor components for complete sets, forcing them to cut back on small and medium size shipments and switch to profitable large and mid - to high-end products. This year, the shipments of high-end QLED TVs reached 11.02 million units, up 22.4% year on year. Shipments of OLED TVs reached 7.1 million units, up 80% year on year, and both set new records.
In addition, with the rising vaccination rate in Europe and the United States, the demand driven by the housing economy may slow down, coupled with the high panel prices, the brand in order to reduce the loss of small and medium-sized size, by enlarging the size of the product and upgrading specifications to ensure the maximum profit this year. The reduction in the size of fighter jets will also have an impact on TV brand shipments for the whole year. As a result, TrendForce expects global TV shipments to reach 220 million units in 2021, up 1.4 percent a year.
Samsung's NEO QLED series helped push shipments of Mini LED backlit TVs to 3 million units this year
In order to make up for the profit gap of mid-range and low-end models, TV brand leader Samsung Electronics has reduced the price of its QLED products in order to attract consumers. The new Neo QLED 8K series and the Mini LED backlight with UHD were also launched simultaneously, pushing QLED TV shipments to a peak of 9.1 million units at an annual growth rate of 17%. This includes 1.5 million MINI LED backlit TVs in 65 "and 55" sizes, accounting for 33% and 30% of shipments, respectively. Seventeen percent of the extra large size is 75 inches.
In addition, in 2020, TCL will launch a relatively affordable 75 inch Mini LED backlight TV; In 2021, the size will be extended to 65 inches, and it is estimated that 800,000 units will be shipped this year. In addition to the active promotion of the two TV brands, with Xiaomi (01810) and LG Electronics also planning to join the MINI LED backlight technology market, TrendForce expects 3 million MINI LED backlight TVs to be shipped this year.
The brand expanded the layout of OLED TV production lines, with LG Electronics and Sony accounting for nearly 80% of the total market share
At present, the high-end TV market is mainly dominated by OLED with high color saturation and high contrast to create a picture with high picture quality to gain consumers' favor. With the expansion of the production capacity of LG Display's OLED Guangzhou 8.5 generation line this year, it will contribute to the improvement of supply and size diversification. In addition, the price difference between OLED panel and LCD products with the same specification will be greatly reduced at the strategic stage. Its price advantage makes the brand more willing to expand the layout of OLED TV production line under the premise of profit improvement, thus setting an OLED annual shipment record again. In terms of brands, LG Electronics is still the leader in OLED TV shipments this year, accounting for more than 50 percent of the market. Sony ranked second with 20 percent of the market, while Japanese brands such as Panasonic and Sharp, as well as mainland brands such as Skyworth (00751), Hisense (00921) and Xiaomi saw expected growth in shipments.
