Can The Low Price Of Xiaomi Plus OLED TV Stir Up The High-End Market

      A few days ago, the TV market again encountered "price butcher" millet, this time millet will be the ultimate cost-effective implementation of the field of OLED.

On August 10, Xiaomi released two series of OLED TVs, namely, Xiaomi TV master 77 inch OLED and Xiaomi TV 6 OLED. Among them, the initial price of 6 OLED 55 inch of millet TV directly dropped to 4999 yuan, and the price of 65 inch TV was 6999 yuan, which caused hot discussion in the industry.

Although the retail prices of the two OLED TVs are 5699 yuan and 7699 yuan respectively, the lowest price has exceeded the threshold of 5000 yuan, breaking the existing pricing system. OLED has always been regarded as a high-end product. At present, the prices of various manufacturers in the market are basically above 6000 yuan. One of the obstacles to the popularization of OLED TV is high cost and high price. Obviously, Xiaomi's move is intended to open the middle and high-end TV market.

Xiaomi also directly revealed his ambition. On August 11, Lu Weibing, Xiaomi's senior vice president, said on his micro blog: "Xiaomi already has a full-size / multi series / different price range of OLED product layout. Next, Xiaomi's OLED TV target is also very clear, of course, to win the first place in China's OLED TV market."

It should be pointed out that the overall demand of China's TV market is low, especially the performance of high-end products is not satisfactory. According to the statistical data of sigmaitell, in 2020, the market size of China's OLED is less than 200000 units, and the penetration rate is 0.4%. It is expected to grow to 300000 units in 2021, and the penetration rate will rise to 0.8%, which is still at a low level.

With the development of Xiaomi, the OLED market is becoming more and more lively this year. The participation of more manufacturers and the release of greater production capacity are expected to further promote the popularization of OLED.

Catfish admission

In recent years, more and more brands have joined the OLED camp in the TV industry, from LGE, Sony, Skyworth to Hisense, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc. In the process of laying out the high-end TV market, OLED has almost become a must for manufacturers. Among domestic enterprises, Skyworth invested earlier and was quite active, and later Xiaomi accelerated its entry into the market with the power of new brands.

Taking Xiaomi TV 6 OLED as an example, Xiaomi started its way in the high-end TV market with the cost performance strategy, which reflects the control ability of Xiaomi in the supply chain cost and the differences in product design ideas. Compared with other high-end OLED TVs, millet TV 6 OLED has made a comprehensive balance in price, display performance and other aspects.

In terms of group intelligence consulting, Xiaomi TV 6 OLED series products, which adopt 4K, 60Hz refresh rate and other specifications and technologies, belong to the entry-level products of OLED TV sets, but have achieved a great breakthrough in the price. With the overall layout of Xiaomi 6 and master series OLED products in the middle and high-end market, the overall performance of millet product line has been improved, which is in line with the basic direction of the enterprise's own transformation to medium and high-end. With the ultra-high performance price ratio and the huge influence of millet brand in the Chinese market, especially among the young major consumer groups, to expand the user base of OLED technology and accelerate the promotion of OLED TV penetration rate in the Chinese market, for the whole Chinese TV market, this move will play a catfish effect and bring vitality to the sluggish Chinese TV demand.

Compared with the competitive products, Xiaomi TV 6 OLED with a price of 5000 yuan forms a competition for the generally high price OLED TV. For young users who want to taste fresh, Xiaomi may become the first choice. However, for high-end product consumers who are not sensitive to price, the product power of Xiaomi master series still faces direct competition from traditional manufacturers.

On the other hand, some people in the industry also pointed out that millet TV 6 OLED also forms a competition in the high-end LCD market, including the mini LED TV which has been popular in recent two years. Sun Jian, senior analyst of group intelligence TV research, told the 21st century economic report: "in terms of competition, the release of low-cost OLED models will drive the growth of OLED demand scale under the background of China's market downturn and the decline of high-end demand, which will have an impact on miniled backlight TV. Miniled backlight technology is still in its infancy, and there is room for substantial cost reduction. Under the impact of OLED, whether miniled will accelerate the process of cost and price decline, face-to-face competition with OLED in the price dimension, and consumers' acceptance of both are worth observing. "

Behind the competition for high-end market

OLED as an advanced display technology has been launched for many years, ultra-thin fuselage, excellent image quality and other performance has been widely concerned by the industry. However, due to the unfavorable factors such as high manufacturing cost and single panel supplier, the market performance is not as expected. In the past two years, with the continuous expansion of brand camp and further strengthening of product competitiveness, OLED TV market has ushered in accelerated growth. According to the statistical data forecast of group intelligence consulting, in 2021, the global OLED TV shipment will be 6.3 million, with a year-on-year growth of 77%. By 2022, the shipment will be close to 10 million, with a year-on-year increase of 51%, and the penetration rate will exceed 4%.

Behind the growth of OLED penetration rate and manufacturers' competition for high-end market is the continuous improvement of OLED production capacity and the further decrease of cost. In terms of high-end products, with the increase of the production capacity of Guangzhou OLED factory and the convergence of price difference with LCD TV panel quotation, the OLED TV panel exclusively supplied by LGD has not only become the key to increase customers' purchase intention, but also increased the penetration rate of OLED TV panel to 2.6% in the first half of this year, with the shipment volume of 3556000 pieces. In addition, with the production capacity of Guangzhou OLED plant reaching 90K sheets per month in the second quarter, it is expected that the overall OLED TV panel shipment volume in 2021 is expected to move forward to 8 million pieces, and the penetration rate is expected to reach 3%.

For large-scale OLEDs, high cost has always been a difficult problem to popularize, and the cost has decreased since last year. Group intelligence also pointed out that the cost gap between OLEDs and LCD modules of the same size has been narrowing this year. Its data shows that as of May 2021, the price difference between 65 inch and 55 inch 120Hz 4K OLEDs and LCD modules has decreased from 2.1 times and 1.9 times at the beginning of the year to 1.8 times and 1.7 times respectively.

On the other hand, more brands are stepping into the field of large-size OLED to break the unique situation of LGD. Previously, Samsung's SDC has announced the construction of OLED production line, which is likely to join the supply in 2021; After TCL technology took a stake in joled last year, it also plans to build a large-scale OLED production line in Guangzhou.

With the optimization of cost and production capacity, TV brands in the global OLED market are also improving their competitiveness. According to the group intelligence consulting report, at present, LGE and Sony have been adhering to the OLED as the technology mainstay, leading the OLED TV market. LGE realizes full coverage of all OLED TV sizes in the product line planning of OLED TV, and the product line is the most abundant; Sony has outstanding features in the planning of OLED TV product line, which is mainly manifested in its concise product lineup and focusing on high-end products; In contrast, due to the constraints of product positioning, brand pull and other factors, as well as the shrinking demand of China's high-end market, Chinese brands still have much room for improvement in the field of OLED TV.