4K TVs Still the Mainstay of TV Market
The share of 8K TVs in the global TV market will remain below 1 percent this year, according to a latest forecast from market researcher WitsView.
Global TV manufacturers presented 8K TVs as the mainstay of the TV manufacturing industry at CES 2019. Nevertheless, 8K TVs are still expected to hold a small share in the TV market because 8K content and transmission technology have not yet matured. Moreover, 4K TV panels are selling at nearly half the price of 8K panels.
Market researcher WitsView predicted in a recently released report that 8K TVs would account for 0.2 percent of all TV sales this year. Last year, they posted a 0.04 percent market share.
8K TVs have four times more pixels than 4K TVs and 16 times more pixels than FHD TVs. They are considered the next cash cow for the TV and display industries. The TV industry started paying attention to 8K TVs following the launch of 8K products by Sharp and Samsung Electronics. Chinese TV makers such as TCL, Haier, Hisense, and Konka also presented 8K TV models, overcoming technical difficulties.
For this reason, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) of the United States which hosts the CES cited 8K TVs as one of the major technology trends to watch this year.
However, experts inside and outside the TV industry say that the global TV industry is not ready to support 8K display technology. They say that 8K TVs require filming equipment that can produce high-quality content and a high-speed telecommunication network, which are still not available.
The TV manufacturing industry is trying to overcome these limitations in various manners. An example is the introduction of an upscaling technology that upgrades 4K images to 8K images. In addition, the TV industry has also launched a nonprofit 8K TV group at CES 2019 to expand an 8K TV ecosystem.
However, one big problem is that 8K panel prices are nearly double those of 4K panels.
The penetration rate of 4K TVs has started to rise rapidly, with the market share of 4K TVs expected to reach 53.5 percent this year, up 8 percentage points from 45.5 percent last year. 4K TVs are expected to have a larger market share than high definition (HD) TVs and full high definition (FHD) TVs this year.