Narrowing Gaps in Premium TV Technologies
Chinese TV makers are in hot pursuit of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. They are rapidly expanding their presences in the global TV market by narrowing their gap with Korean companies in premium technologies such as micro LEDs and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).
Chinese TV companies such as TCL, Hisense, Haier, Konka, and Skyworks are advancing their technologies day by day. In the past, they waged a price war with Korean TV makers mainly in the low-priced TV segment. But now they have secured competitiveness in the premium TV market, too. They demonstrated their rapid strides in TV technology at CES 2020, the world's largest electronics and IT show in Las Vegas of the United States.
TCL, China's No. 1 TV company, unveiled “Vidrian Mini-LED” technology at CES 2020 that can stack up against Samsung's micro LED technology. It claimed that Vidrian Mini-LED technology provides the best color contrast and clarity by using tens of thousands of micrometer-sized mini LEDs as backlights. TCL also showcased a TCL QLED TV similar to Samsung's flagship QLED TV.
Konka unveiled 118- and 236-inch micro LED TVs similar to new micro LED TVs released by Samsung this year. The company also exhibited an 88-inch OLED TV, which was almost identical to an OLED model by LG Electronics. Sharp, a Taiwanese company, came up with a 30-inch rollable OLED TV similar to LG Electronics' world-first rollable TV.
Chinese companies are also expanding their presence in the global TV market. TCL recorded a 21.2 percent share in the North American market in terms of shipments in the first half of last year, coming close to Samsung Electronics’ 22.2 percent, according to IHS Markit. Hisense recorded a 7.5 percent share, closely trailing LG Electronics’11.6 percent.