There were a number of key trends in evidence at IFA this year.
Some that I saw included:
- miniLED backlights
- Dual-Cell TVs
- 8K TVs
- New Picture Modes
- Transparent Displays
- Laser TVs
- Innovative Designs
In this Display Daily, I’ll take a look at the last trend mentioned – innovative TV designs.
First, it seems clear that picture quality is already at a very high level with 4K HDR and only getting better with 8K sets coming. But the TV market is a crowded, competitive space with new and aggressive Chinese brands making good headway. And, with overall TV sales basically flat, TV brands need ways to drive sales and market share growth. Obviously new technology and features can help, but design and aesthetics are becoming increasingly important as well.
One trend is make the “big black hole” disappear into the wall (The Black Hole on the Wall). When not being used for entertainment, the TV can now double as a means to display world class art. Samsung’s “The Frame” is the best example with hundreds of pieces of art now available along with QLED technology. LG introduced something similar, but I didn’t see it promoted on their site or in retail.
Samsung was also promoting their “Serif” I-shaped design at IFA as well. The 2.0 version now includes QLED technology.
LG Electronics and other partners have offered their OLED wallpaper design for a few years – a super thin wall-mounted TV coupled to a sound bar/electronics package. The 77” solution is available now for $10K.
And, the new 4K rollable TVs are coming that are just as brilliant.
Changhong showed a double-screen TV with back-to-back screens. This may be fine for commercial applications or maybe high-end home where the TV fits in a wall between 2 rooms.
TCL, Changhong and Samsung are talking about concepts of TVs that rotate from landscape to portrait orientation. They think people who are used to portrait-mode videos and images from their mobile devices will like this feature. Maybe so.
Hisense showed their ARC TV design which has rounded corners for a more pleasing aesthetic.
Transparent displays are being developed as well. Panasonic showed a very nice example as below.
There are also a number of designs that are clearly more aesthetically oriented, designing the frame and audio solution in novel ways like the TVs below from Konka.
In conclusion, it seems that design is moving out of the realm of specialty brands to mainstream brands as a key way to differentiate products for the brand and for the consumer. This is likely to continue.
