Widening Gap with Competitors

A QLED 8K TV from Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics has regained its pride as the world's top TV maker. According to electronics industry analysts on Nov. 19, Samsung Electronics boosted its share of the global market for high-end TVs costing US$1,500 or more per unit to 50 percent in the first half of this year. Samsung's share in this segment fell to 19% in the second half of last year. The company accounted for 43.8% of the premium TV market (TVs worth US$2,500 or more per unit) and 57.9% of the super-sized TV market (75-inch or larger TVs) in the first half of 2018.

"Samsung's QLED TV sales will top 2.5 million units next year and four million units in 2019 from 1.5 million units this year," said an industry analyst. "Samsung is expected to expand TV sales by diversifying its QLED TV lineup."


Samsung is pushing for a “super-gap strategy” with its next-generation 8K TV. Competitors are saying that it is premature to say that 8K TVs are highly marketable, but Samsung is confident about the future of its 8K TVs, claiming that the company has the technology to make 4K contents look like 8K ones.

Actually, as for contents, there are not enough 4K contents, still less for 8K TVs. However, Samsung plans to solve this problem with its upscaling technology.

Upscaling technology converts a low-resolution video into a high-resolution one. Samsung 8K TV converts not only 4K but SD, HD and FHD videos to 8K. Samsung broke the limits of 4K TV which its competitors had said would not be popularized soon due to a lack of 4K contents. This was made possible because Samsung has secured related semiconductor technology.

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