LG Electronics Dominates OLED TV Market
The organic light emitting diode (OLED) TV group led by LG Electronics is increasing its share of the global TV market. Chinese TV makers are concentrating on increasing sales volume with inexpensive liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs, but the OLED TV group is boosting sales in the premium TV market.
Sony of Japan ranked third in the TV market after Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics last year. Market researcher IHS Markit said that in 2018, Sony posted US$11.69 billion in TV sales, followed by China's HiSense with US$6.88 billion and TCL with US$6.58 billion.
On the other hand, in terms of sales volume, TCL and HiSense dwarfed Sony. Last year Sony sold 11.6 million TVs. HiSense sold 15.94 million units and TCL 17.72 million units, far exceeding Sony's. Sony's TV sales have been on a steady decline since 13.87 million units in 2013. Nevertheless, Sony’s TV sales revenue grew 58 percent from 2013 thanks to its focus on OLED TVs.
Sony focused on the premium TV market with OLED TV models as the LCD TV market reached maturity and suffered oversupply. TV market observers said that Sony made a comeback in the TV market as it employed a strategy to concentrate on OLED TV models. Last year, Sony’s average selling price (ASP) stood at US$1,000, more than double TCL's US$372 and HiSense's US$432.
Currently, the OLED TV group consists of 15 TV makers including LG Electronics and Sony. Many of these companies are ramping up their market shares in terms of sales. LG Electronics succeeded in increasing its market share from 13.59 percent in 2016 to 16.43 percent last year. Sony also elevated its market share from 8.52 percent to 10.13 percent during the same period. AOC/TP Vision’s market share rose from 2.84 percent to 3.74 percent, while that of Panasonic from 2.05 percent to 3.28 percent.
Meanwhile, LG Electronics accounted for 62.2 percent of the OLED camp's total market share in terms of quantity, followed by Sony (18.9 percent), Panasonic (7.7 percent), AOC/TP Vision (5.7 percent) and Skyworth (2.4 percent). OLED TV sales grew to 723,700 units in 2016, 1,592,100 units in 2017 and 2,514,200 units in 2018.
"As competition in the LCD TV market has been heating up, Chinese TV makers are turning their eyes to OLED TVs," a TV industry observer said. "HiSense has been selling OLED TVs since last year and TCL is developing OLED TV models."