Describing competition at the high-end of the market white hot, analyst TrendForce has observed that TV brands in the first half of 2021 benefited from Covid-19 economic relief funds driving a continuing boom in North American shipments.
At the same time, it noted that TV brands continued to replenish panel inventories, pushing up panel prices. As the pandemic slowed down in Europe and the United States in the second half of the year, the analyst said life returned to normal and pandemic stimulus no longer applied, challenging demand levels. In addition, rising raw material and freight prices pushed up whole device cost, forcing TV brands to pass costs onto retail pricing.
Yet even though TV brands staked their hopes on the two major annual yearend sales promotion events of Singles Day in China (the biggest shopping day of the year globally, online and IRL) and Black Friday, sales performance was poor due to high costs leading to a slump in end-user demand and eventually causing TV shipments to decline by 3.2% annually to 210 million units in 2021.
TrendForce further indicates that panel supply and overall production capacity will be ample in 2022, dispelling severe TV panel price fluctuations while ushering in steady and moderate fluctuations as a replacement. After a sharp revision in TV panel prices in the 2H21, this year’s panel pricing is expected to be more advantageous to the planning of TV brands.
Looking at key rends in display technologies, TrendForce said that in 2021, OLED TVs benefited from soaring LCD prices over the previous two years. This was also the case with 55-inch 4K O/C products. The price difference between the two has narrowed from a multiple of 4.7 in early 2020 to 1.8 in mid-2021, thereby incentivising more TV brands to switch to producing OLED TVs when LCD panel supply is limited and driving OLED TV shipments to 6.7 million units in 2021, or 70% growth year-on-year.
In a key trend for the year revealed in the report, even though Samsung Electronics intends to join the white OLED camp and simultaneously launch QD OLED TVs this year, the continuing falling pricing of LCD panels and the price of OLED TV panels - subject to LG Display's strategy of increasing pricing as opposed to dropping them -may disrupt Samsung Electronics' rollout of OLED TVs. If Samsung Electronics fails to launch spring OLED TV models, its original shipment target of 1.5 million units will inevitably be affected. Overall, TrendForce calculates that OLED TV growth will slow down in 2022, and annual growth rate will settle at 27%.
Yet even though TV brands staked their hopes on the two major annual yearend sales promotion events of Singles Day in China (the biggest shopping day of the year globally, online and IRL) and Black Friday, sales performance was poor due to high costs leading to a slump in end-user demand and eventually causing TV shipments to decline by 3.2% annually to 210 million units in 2021.
TrendForce further indicates that panel supply and overall production capacity will be ample in 2022, dispelling severe TV panel price fluctuations while ushering in steady and moderate fluctuations as a replacement. After a sharp revision in TV panel prices in the 2H21, this year’s panel pricing is expected to be more advantageous to the planning of TV brands.
Looking at key rends in display technologies, TrendForce said that in 2021, OLED TVs benefited from soaring LCD prices over the previous two years. This was also the case with 55-inch 4K O/C products. The price difference between the two has narrowed from a multiple of 4.7 in early 2020 to 1.8 in mid-2021, thereby incentivising more TV brands to switch to producing OLED TVs when LCD panel supply is limited and driving OLED TV shipments to 6.7 million units in 2021, or 70% growth year-on-year.
In a key trend for the year revealed in the report, even though Samsung Electronics intends to join the white OLED camp and simultaneously launch QD OLED TVs this year, the continuing falling pricing of LCD panels and the price of OLED TV panels - subject to LG Display's strategy of increasing pricing as opposed to dropping them -may disrupt Samsung Electronics' rollout of OLED TVs. If Samsung Electronics fails to launch spring OLED TV models, its original shipment target of 1.5 million units will inevitably be affected. Overall, TrendForce calculates that OLED TV growth will slow down in 2022, and annual growth rate will settle at 27%.
