TV Strategy
At the present moment, when the competition between TV manufacturers is becoming stronger, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are changing their strategy to focus on quality rather than quantity in the second half of this year.
According to the data from a market research firm WitsView on Nov. 1, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics sold 10.9 million and 6.6 million LCD TVs in the third quarter, respectively. Samsung Electronics showed a 3.8 percent increase in sales compared to the second quarter, but fell far short of the market average of 8 percent. In contrast, LG Electronics was the only company that saw shrinkage in shipments among the global top five TV makers, showing a 7 percent decrease in sales during the same period.
However, the two companies’ profitability in the TV business has improved. This is largely due to the fact that they continuously strengthened their marketing with premium models, including 55-inch UHD TVs, rather than joining the cutthroat competition in the 30 to 40 inch low-end models market, which has continued from the end of last year to this year. Another factor is that the price of panels has dropped by more than 10 percent this year as the largest UHD panel companies, such as Samsung Display and LG Display, have successfully cut costs and strengthened productivity.
Meanwhile, The Creative Life (TCL) and Hisense showed the highest growth among six leading companies, which have had the intense competition to raise the market share in the low-end LCD TV market in China, the largest market in the world. TCL sold 3.66 million units in the third quarter, while Hisense sold 3.34 million units. The figures were almost double the shipments of other Chinese TV makers, including Haier and Changhong. In particular, TCL increased its sales by 31 percent from the previous quarter, edging out Sony and Hisense to reach the number three spot in the global shipment ranking.