Competition in High-end TVs
Sony, which ranks first in the world market of high-end TVs costing US$2,500 or more in the world last year, is rebuilding its reputation as a TV powerhouse with OLED TVs.
According to the TV industry on March 27, Sony released its 'A8F' series of OLED TVs this year by lowering its price 40% compared to OLED TV products sold last year. The 55-inch model, which was US$5,000 last year, was released at US$2,800 this year, a 44% cut. In addition, the unit price of 65-inch products sold at US$6,500 last year slid to US$3800 this year, down 41%. The price of the 65-inch OLED TV 'C8' launched by LG Electronics earlier last year, was priced at US$2,500 so Sony priced the model slightly higher.
In recent years, Sony has been in hot pursuit of LG Electronics, boosting its profitability by focusing on the sale of high-priced OLED TVs worth more than US$2,500 in the world TV market. The average selling price of Sony's 65-inch OLED TVs is US$3,777, with its margin estimated at more than 40 percent. In particular, they are expected to record 400,000 units in sales which are 100% higher than last year thanks to a drastic decrease in the price this year.
Sony launched the world's first 11-inch OLED TV in 2007. However, after that, the company stopped selling OLED TVs in Japan in February 2010, relegated by competitors such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. After that, Sony made inroads into the global market by partnering with Panasonic but failed and gave up its OLED TV business in 2012.
Early last year, Sony resumed its OLED TV business by launching new OLED TVs at the world's largest consumer electronics and IT exhibition 'CES 2017' in five years, and beginning selling them through Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics store chain in the US in April of that year.
Sony topped the high-end TV market with OLED TV products with a market share of 36.9% last year. Sony's TV business which has recorded a chronic deficit for more than 10 years since 2004 posted an operating profit of 762.8 billion won (US$686 million) last year.
LG Electronics which ranked second in the high-end TV market last year with 33.2% said that the company will significantly ramp up its OLED TV sales volume this year by lowering OLED TV prices 20% year on year.