The price is closer to the people, the penetration rate of smart TV in 2012 is nearly 30%

After two years of rapid development, smart TVs have not only driven the upgrading and transformation of the traditional color TV industry, but also caused profound changes in the entire industry chain. In 2012, foreign brands such as Samsung, Sony and Apple all increased the research and development of smart TVs, which brought serious challenges to domestic color TV manufacturers. Experts in the industry suggest that domestic color TV manufacturers should use their own brand and channel advantages to unite with other machine manufacturers or IT vendors to jointly expand the smart TV market.

Market penetration rate is nearly 30%

In 2012, smart TV will usher in a breakthrough development with a market penetration rate of 27%.

In 2011, under the strong promotion of color TV manufacturers at home and abroad, the smart TV market developed rapidly. According to CCID Consulting's forecast, the annual average compound annual growth rate of China's smart TV production is expected to reach 65.1% in the next three years, which means that smart TV will soon become the protagonist in the global television market.

Smart TV is the development trend of the color TV industry. Technology and service capabilities have become a concrete manifestation of corporate competitiveness. In 2011, China's color TV companies launched smart TVs with distinctive features, and their market penetration rate reached 8%. It is expected that the penetration rate of smart TV market will reach 27% in 2012.

Although smart TVs are still in the primary development stage, there is still much room for improvement in human-computer interaction, operating systems, and application software. However, smart TVs are favored by a large number of manufacturers for their rich applications and open operating platforms. In 2011, as the overall growth rate of the color TV market declined, TV manufacturers are committed to the research and development of smart TV new products and seek breakthroughs through upgrading their product structure.

According to AVC's forecast, smart TV will usher in a breakthrough development in 2012. Forecast data show that in 2012, the smart TV market is expected to sell 11.9 million units, an increase of approximately 240% year-on-year; retail sales are expected to total 21.6 billion yuan for the full year, an increase of approximately 221% year-on-year.

Pang Jianfeng, general manager of AVC’s Flat Panel Display Center, said in an interview with the “China Electronics News” reporter: “Smart TVs, as an important product in the transformation of the color TV industry in the future, will continue to be the concept of TV manufacturers’ main push in 2012. However, Consumers need time to accept new things, coupled with objective factors such as insufficient domestic Internet TV content, lack of network conditions in most areas, and unclear product interaction experience, Smart TVs will not become standard in the year, but with manufacturing. With the drop in costs, the price of smart TVs will surely be closer to the people."

Urging changes in the production chain

The emergence of smart TVs has changed the entire industry chain, and all companies are trying to expand into related fields.

The rapid growth of the smart TV market has led to the expansion of participants in all aspects of the industry chain. On the one hand, the development of Internet technology provides an opportunity for smart TV technology and service upgrades. On the other hand, smart TVs can carry rich content. Both applications and advertisements can be presented to consumers through television.

Ovid Consulting (AVC) survey data shows that when smart TV first emerged in 2010, there were less than 500 chip vendors, software vendors, and content vendors supporting smart TVs in China. However, by the second half of 2011, this number has increased to more than 2,000. Home and attracted the participation of integrated license providers such as Huadian and BesTV, and content providers such as Qiyi, Zhuangzhuang, Sina, and Sohu. It is estimated that from 2012 to the end of 2015, the number of participating companies in the smart TV industry chain will increase by more than 50% annually.

Yu Kehui, general manager of Tianjin Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., told reporters: “The advent of smart TVs has changed the entire industry chain, and all companies are trying to expand into related fields to do business in the immediate area. It is precisely because of changes in the value chain. As a result, the original IT companies have entered the field of smart TVs, and traditional TV companies have begun to do content and services, so that the entire intelligent terminal companies have become a pan-IT trend."

For this reason, the smart TV market not only attracted the attention of the supporting manufacturers, but also favored by IT vendors such as Apple, Lenovo, AOC AOC. According to Liu Jun, senior vice president of Lenovo Group, in the next few years, the electronics industry will move toward a converged era, and traditional equipment will be replaced by new devices, just as smart phones are replacing traditional mobile phones. He believes that smart TVs will soon become mainstream.

Domestic brands meet the challenge

Domestic manufacturers dominate in price and marketing strategies, while foreign brands lead in user experience.

If Google TV is the fuse for the rise of smart TVs, it is the Chinese color TV companies that really set off a smart storm in the color TV industry. In 2011, domestic color TV companies all turned their R&D focus to smart TVs and cloud TVs. Skyworth, Konka, Hisense, Changhong, TCL and other domestic TV brands accounted for nearly 90% of the market share. China's color TV companies have spared no effort to promote smart TVs, which have made domestic brands take the initiative.

Although foreign brands slowed down the promotion of smart TVs and cloud TVs, the awareness of domestic TV manufacturers does not mean that they can always dominate. In the future, Samsung, LG, Sony, Apple and other manufacturers will launch smart TVs in succession, which poses great challenges to domestic TV manufacturers.

Peng Jianfeng told reporters that from the perspective of brand differentiation, domestic manufacturers are committed to promoting the development of smart TV in terms of price and marketing concepts, while foreign brands mainly have a certain leading edge in the operation experience of products. If the era of analog TV is "a confederation of vassals," then the oligopoly is likely to occur in the smart TV era.

In fact, since the launch of smart TVs, China's color TV manufacturers have continuously upgraded their smart phone cloud service technologies, operating systems, and human-machine interactions such as voice control to enhance the user experience.

Xu Hongjun, assistant general manager and general manager of marketing department of Konka Group’s multimedia marketing division, stated: “For Chinese color TV manufacturers, we deeply understand consumer demand and have the advantage of integrating upstream and downstream resources, which makes China’s color TV companies more The opportunity to face new competition. However, we must rethink the development trend of the entire television industry and participate in the new process of global TV division of labor."

Terminal observation

Incremental non-price-creating unfavorable industries Long-term development Hongwen Recently, panel makers have introduced new-size LCD panels, with products mainly concentrated in 39-inch, 43-inch, 48-inch and 50-inch. According to this calculation, in 2012 the domestic TV size will reach more than 12 kinds. Samsung is the main provider of 43-inch and 48-inch panels.

The emergence of new TV sets has brought new opportunities for the development of panel and complete manufacturers. Under the conditions of mature technology, LCD panel makers added one more inch to the existing 42-inch, 47-inch, and 52-inch models. Although panel production costs did not change much, they could enrich the product. In 2011, when the LCD panel market was in a downturn, the "+1 inch" market strategy found new market breakthroughs for major companies. The cooperation between different TV brands and different panel brands also provides consumers with more choices. This seems like a win-win thing, but is it beneficial to the development of the color TV industry?

In fact, the strategy of “increasing the price without increasing the price” will win the favor of consumers in the short term, but in the long run, this strategy will have some adverse effects on consumers and machine manufacturers. For complete machine manufacturers, longer product lines will increase the supply chain and product management efficiency. From the perspective of consumers, products with poor cutting rates will be phased out with advancements in technology. TV size standards are not uniform, and it also adds a lot of uncertainties to after-sales services. Therefore, the more new color TV products, the better.

It is precisely because the realization that the color TV standard size is not uniform is not conducive to the development of the industry. In recent days, the China Electronics Video Industry Association revised the “Standard Specification for Color TV LCD Main Screens”. Under the constraints of this standard, the color TV mainstream size will be standardized. , Which led to the orderly development of color TV industry.

expert's point

General Manager Yu Kehui of Tianjin Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. “Smart TV has changed the traditional TV hardware service model, and software has become the core competitiveness of color TV products.”

Rich applications and content have been expanded on smart TVs. We predict that the growth rate of smart TVs will increase dramatically in the next few years. For this reason, the smart TV market has attracted the participation of many companies, showing a pan-IT trend.

Taking Google as an example, we can use the Google platform to obtain different services from databases, such as cloud services, search services, voice services, and various video services. The most important feature is the unified management of these services through the Google Business Platform. The open Android system software platform can distribute content to various terminals. The free services provided by Google have been favored by users.

It can be said that smart TV has changed the traditional TV hardware service model, and software has become the core competitiveness of color TV products. In the past, color TV manufacturers focused their attention on large-size, ultra-thin, picture quality, and appearance hardware. Now TV manufacturers hope to provide consumers with more diversified services to create new business models and benefit from them. This is also the overall thinking of the entire smart TV development.

In my opinion, the development of smart TVs should focus on the following aspects: First, content expansion; second, convenience of use; third, differentiation, and fourth, to meet the real needs of consumers. Only through these four efforts can we guide the development of the market with new technologies.

Sun Dongwen, Vice President of Skyworth Group and President of Skyworth Color TV Division, “will focus on cloud TV technology in 2012, focusing on developing products with better user experience and voice control technology.”

In 2011, various color TV brands launched new products to seek breakthroughs. Smart cloud TV came into being. It can be said that technology and demand are the "two locomotives" of industrial progress. On the one hand, technological advancement has prompted companies to continuously introduce new products; on the other hand, new products and new technologies are based on consumer demand, which may be potential.

From LED TVs to 3D TVs, to smart TVs and cloud TVs, TVs have more and more functions and applications are becoming more and more abundant. Although each company has different concepts for custom-defined cloud TVs and smart TVs, it has promoted color TVs. Technology upgrades. In 2012, as Apple, Google, Lenovo and other IT giants are involved in the field of smart TVs, products that provide users with rich features and applications will become the focus of business competition.

In 2012, China's color TV industry will focus on cloud TV technology, focusing on developing products with better user experience. Voice control technology will be the focus of smart TV development. Skyworth will cooperate with professional voice control technology companies to launch smart TVs with simple voice interaction capabilities. However, there are too many dialects in our country and these technologies are also gradually developing.

In the smart age, the operating system has become the key to the development of smart TVs and cloud televisions. Without operating systems, there is no question of sharing and interacting with back-end content. In my opinion, we must rationally use "engagementism." The Android system is the best choice.

First of all, Android is open source and open; Second, it has a lot of applications; Finally, Android has formed an international application development planning and standards. Previously, the Android operating system was applied to small-sized terminals. Nowadays, with the continuous improvement of system technology, Android 4.0 is very suitable for large-size display terminals.

The operating system is an ecological system. It requires a large amount of human and technical investment in the early stage of development. With Skyworth's own resources, it is difficult to develop an operating system that can compete with Google or Apple. Therefore, Skyworth Smart TV clearly selects Google Android. The system will only consider developing TV operating systems when we have accumulated to a certain degree. Of course, it is a good thing for Chinese companies to independently develop operating systems. The two forces will jointly promote the upgrading of smart TV technology and provide consumers with a better experience.

Xu Hongjun, assistant general manager and general manager of marketing department of Konka Group's multimedia marketing division "China's color TV manufacturers want to rethink the entire TV industry and ecology and participate in the new process of global TV division."

From August 2011, within a short period of half a month, domestic mainstream TV manufacturers collectively launched cloud TV, opening the era of smart cloud technology. I think that smart TV will inevitably deploy cloud technology in the future.

The competition in the color TV industry is not only a simple appearance or display technology competition, but also a competition between software services and hardware. This will upset the traditional business model, so color TV manufacturers must implement both hardware and software. In terms of software, Apple has already demonstrated that Apple will perfectly integrate the application store, entertainment platform and products. The development of the color TV industry must also follow this model. The software revolution will certainly bring new opportunities to the domestic color TV market and even the entire color TV industry.

In the face of the traditional color TV industry development model, China's color TV manufacturers must rethink the entire television industry and ecology, and participate in the new process of global television division and cooperation. For domestic brands, we have more resources for users and a deep understanding of the needs of consumers is our advantage.

For the international IT giants such as Apple and Google to set foot in the television field, I have two views. On the one hand, domestic color TV manufacturers have taken the lead in launching cloud TVs. Foreign brands have followed suit. The competition for more manufacturers to join the smart TV market will accelerate the popularization of smart TVs. On the other hand, when China's color TV companies face a new round of competition, they can also gain advantages in the new round of competition based on a large user base and understanding of consumers.

Pang Jianfeng, general manager of AVC Tablet Consultation Center, said that "national TV manufacturers should join forces with other machine manufacturers or IT vendors to rapidly expand their product R&D capabilities."

The speed of replacement of smart TV products is getting faster and faster, which puts forward higher requirements for the research and development level of domestic TV manufacturers. On the one hand, multinational companies such as Samsung and LG have stepped up research and development of smart TV products. Thousands of people have participated in the research and development of chips and systems. On the other hand, IT giants such as Apple, Google, and Lenovo are also involved in the smart TV market. Therefore, 2012 is a very critical year for domestic TV manufacturers.

On the one hand, domestic color TV manufacturers should give full play to their own brand advantages and channel advantages. Before IT companies enter the market, they will steadily occupy the urban market and enter the rural market. As the Internet access conditions in the third and fourth-tier cities are still relatively poor, and the price of smart TVs is still at a high level, smart TV sales are still at the initial stage. But in the future, with the gradual narrowing of smart TV spreads and the deepening of the smart concept, the demand for smart TVs in the 3rd and 4th markets is still very promising. In particular, the third and fourth class urban residents have a slower pace of life and lack of entertainment. Consumers have a higher degree of reliance on television programs. In areas where the network environment allows, consumers have strong demand for video on demand, value-added services and other functions. .

On the other hand, domestic color TV manufacturers should join forces with other machine manufacturers or IT vendors to rapidly expand their own product R&D forces. In terms of manufacturing, the current machine manufacturers have certain cost advantages in terms of panel procurement and module assembly, but they are still facing the situation of costing with foundries.

Micro viewpoint

@ Zhang Yaqin (Chairman of Microsoft China)

The future IT field will mainly focus on the cloud, end-to-end and application three platforms. In the end platform, Microsoft, Google, and Apple will launch a battle for PCs, mobile phones, tablets, and TVs. They will dominate the platform within five years, and other operating systems will have a hard time. Smart TVs will usher in a leap forward. Traditional manufacturers will face the impact of the mobile phone industry; tablet PCs will complement the PCs and will not erode the notebook market; the X86 and Arm will compete fiercely.

@Li Dongsheng (Chairman and CEO of TCL Corporation)

Recently, news of broadband speeding has been heard from Guangdong, Shanghai, and Beijing. Users can even enjoy the fiber-optic Internet experience. This is good news for smart Internet TV. With fast Internet access, users will have more experience with smart TVs. The popularization of smart applications will bring a brand-new opportunity for the transformation of color TV industry.

@Sui Bin (Shanghai Broadband General Manager, Eastern Broadband)

The Windows 8 operating system provides new opportunities for the development of tablets. The Ultrabook may be the second netbook. The Metro Style experience is suitable for large screen products such as tablets and TVs. I believe that smart TVs using the Android operating system will appear in China and will implement the Metro Style user experience.

@ Liu Lanlan (Chief Executive of China-Canadian Internet)

Color TV manufacturers are making smart TVs not only because of high terminal profit margins, but also because terminal manufacturers want to go on the road to platform vendors. Think of the path Apple has taken. In the future, smart TV development will also have problems with “big platform” and “small platform”.