Some are happy, some are sad. Why is Sony the biggest highlight of this year's AWE?

The China Home Appliances & Consumer Electronics Expo (AWE) is gradually becoming the highest-level arena in the Chinese home appliance market. Major domestic and foreign home appliance brands are competing to showcase their latest products and technologies here. In a sense, AWE has become a touchstone for the Chinese home appliance market.

Although this year's AWE has not yet opened, there are already reports that because Sony TV is participating in the exhibition for the first time, China's color TV war in 2018 may kick off early.

Why did Sony stand out?

According to statistics, about 200 million TVs are sold worldwide each year, of which about 50 million are sold in China. This is the main reason why global color TV brands regard China as the most important market. However, in 2017, the Chinese color TV market can be said to have encountered the coldest "winter" in more than a decade. According to different data, the total sales volume for the year fell by about 6.6% to 8.1%. The decline in sales and innovation bottlenecks affected all manufacturers.

However, in the face of market headwinds, Sony TV performed strongly, with sales increasing by 36% year-on-year compared to 2016. Why did Sony stand out? In the context of domestic consumption upgrades, the overall market choice is leaning towards high-end products. Consumers have the ability and opportunity to purchase higher-quality products. Sony's leading technology and absolute product quality have not only firmly captured some Chinese consumers who are eager for consumption upgrades, but also made "national husband" Wang Sicong, Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan, and angel investor Xu Xiaoping impeccable.

In 2018, Sony TV will participate in AWE for the first time with its own black technology, which was called the biggest highlight of the event by major media. At the same time, it was revealed that Samsung, which has been declining in the Chinese market, will miss this year's AWE event due to various reasons. In fact, in the past year, foreign color TV brands other than Sony have been hit hard by domestic brands. Not only Samsung, but other foreign brands have also suffered from the constraints of technical quality and brand appeal. They are in a dilemma. The Sharp brand, which was incorporated into Foxconn, has also turned to a low-price strategy.

The great writer Tolstoy said that happy families are all alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

In the entire Chinese color TV market, foreign brands mostly bear the heavy responsibility of impacting the high-end market. However, if we look at each brand individually, the situations of each brand are indeed very different.

Take Samsung as an example, because it has always been sticking to QLED technology and resolutely abandoned OLED, its product technology has always been in a lukewarm state. Foreign brands such as LG and Sharp are slightly lacking in brand appeal. In the eyes of many Chinese consumers, there is not much difference between them and domestic brands.

(Sony OLED TV A1)

On the other hand, Sony has been constantly innovating its TVs over the years, always adhering to its high-quality principles in terms of sound, picture, design, etc., and standing out from the crowd. Therefore, the market has also given Sony extremely high returns. In the high-end color TV market, Sony is almost the leader. Specifically, Sony's flagship OLED TV A1 series has maintained the top sales in the OLED TV market since it was launched in China in March, which fully demonstrates that Sony's high-end market strategy has achieved initial results, and its high value-added, high-quality products have been recognized and affirmed by the market and consumers.

Figures are boring, but the facts are clear. Sony, which relies on technology, has quietly occupied the leading position in the Chinese color TV market, standing out in the market competition, and also foreshadowing the direction of the revival of China's color TV industry, which is technology, technology, and technology.

China is Sony's most important market

China is Sony's most important market. Today, this sentence no longer needs to be added with the word "one of". Sony headquarters has also clearly realized this. In less than a month, Sony officially launched the new LCD product X9000F in China, which was unveiled at the CES in January 2018. This is enough to show that Sony attaches great importance to the Chinese market. In the "Wu Xiaobo Afternoon Tea" column in January, we saw that Sony (China) Chairman and President Hiroshi Takahashi directly admitted that Sony attaches great importance to the Chinese market to the point that "in the development process of many new products, the research and opinions of the Chinese market will be adopted to a large extent." Therefore, there is news that Sony's latest OLED new product A8F will be unveiled at this AWE venue, and will once again be launched in China first.

(Sony OLED TV A8F)

Analysts said that Sony's move will be the first to provoke a technological war in the Chinese color TV market in 2018, and will then trigger an arms race based on technology in the color TV market.

At a critical moment when consumption is upgrading and rivals like Samsung are absent, Sony wants to tell Chinese consumers that they not only have world-leading technology, but also sincerity. Therefore, Sony decided to participate in this year's AWE for the first time and bring the latest high-tech products, just to tell high-end Chinese consumers: China is Sony's most important market.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.