During the 2019 UDE in Shanghai, TV brands demonstrated their TV products with two major mainstream technology camps covering OLED TV and 8k QLED TV. In addition to its line of OLED TVs, Hisense launched the first TV with BOE’s 65” dual cell TV panel, the U9E model. Hisense plans to sell U9E at CNY 17,999 (~$2600), CNY6,000 less than their 65” OLED TV.
The U9E thickness is ~13mm, but OLED TV can achieve 4mm. Hisense claimed that the BD Cell TV exceeded the peak brightness, color gamut, color accuracy and HDR certification requirements of OLED TVs.
Seeing the U9E demo in their booth, the color and contrast ratio (150000:1) performance is good, and consumers can’t distinguish the difference with OLED TVs, but someone questioned the Hisense pricing strategy for U9E. Hisense’s U9E price is the same as other (domestic Chinese) TV brands 65” OLED TV price, but Hisense has confidence that they can sell both the U9E and a premium-priced OLED TV with their stronger sales channel.
According to Hisense sales and marketing staff, they are willing to develop different technologies to catch up in the premium TV market. Hisense doesn’t say dual cell TV is better than OLED TV, but they don’t want to be limited by LGD for OLED TV capacity and price. Among the premium TV technologies in Hisense, they have positioned laser TV as their focus, and they said their laser TV accounts for more than 50% share of 75”+ inch TVs in China, including LCD TV.
Hisense currently has two laser TV products, L5 and L7 for 88” and 100” TV, and 88” accounts for almost 80% of their total laser TV shipment. Hisense plans to introduce a 75” RGB laser TV in H2’19, but they will use a lower spec of RGB laser for lower cost.
Skyworth premium TV plans continued to focus on OLED TV, recently they have started to do price promotions on OLED TVs, they plan to cut the sales commission from the sales agency and their internal staff, and they will sell to consumers directly with price close to the cost. This is not certain to succeed, though because the China CE market is dominated by sales person’s promotion, especially for premium products. Skyworth wants to lower the price and make consumers realize the value of OLED TV, but thus far have achieved no significant result. However, they plan to build a module fab in Guangzhou close to LGD G8.5 OLED TV fab, they want to purchase cells from LGD directly to improve design and cost down.
Others TV brands’ demonstrations only focused on 8k, and most of the demonstration products are demo products only without MP capability. Many TV brands have been losing money for more than 2 years and rely on government subsidies to survive. Brands need to develop new technology TVs to get more subsidies, regardless of whether the TVs will sell in China.
TCL QLED 8K TV
Samsung 98” QLED 8K TV
Sharp 80” 8K LCD TV
CEC Panda 98” 8K LCD TV
