Technology is being used more and more. Is this the tragedy of the color TV industry?

There are many companies that claim to be manufacturing companies, but there are not many color TV companies that are truly good at manufacturing. Today, the color TV industry has inadvertently completed a transformation as it is impacted by Internet brands. There are fewer and fewer technical people, and more and more compatible people.

If Hisense, Skyworth and TCL are the first-tier color TV companies in China, then what I want to say is that they are indeed strong and capable of being called first-tier companies. Although they have shifted to the content side under the impact of Internet brands such as LeTV and PPTV in the past two years, they are still mainly engaged in manufacturing and technology upgrades to compete in the market. They can be called the real backbone of China's color TV manufacturing industry.

Technology is used more and more

In the past two years, many color TV companies have weakened their technology. To put it mildly, this is the company's own choice, but to put it more seriously, the industrial transformation will be hindered, and there is no way to talk about a manufacturing power. So even Liu Tangzhi, vice president of Skyworth Group and president of the color TV division, was furious: "Internet TV has started a 'fight' for content and will only fight a price war, which has no meaning for China's manufacturing 'from big to strong'. Only when companies master upstream core technologies and make up for 'hard injuries' can domestic TV brands truly rise and let the national industry have more say in the world."

There are many reasons for this, but I think the main reasons are as follows:

First, it is because of its own technology. The color TV technology only needs to be adopted. Now the panels are all open. Whether it is Samsung, LGD, AUO, Innolux, or Huaxing Optoelectronics, BOE, etc., they all have the ability to produce panels and ship them in large quantities.

Second, the profit of the color TV industry has been very low in the past two years. There are not many companies that make money in the domestic market. In the past two years, color TV companies have not had an easy time. They suffered collective losses last year. This year, some companies' financial reports have improved, but it is not the performance contributed by domestic color TV sales. Color TV sales are still very sluggish. Companies cannot make money, so they naturally invest less in R&D. For example, Konka has been hovering around 2 points. Therefore, the possibility of spending extra money on R&D is greatly reduced. Moreover, many technical directions are not clear now, and R&D investment is not a small amount.

Third, as more and more video content manufacturers such as Alibaba, Tencent, and iQiyi enter the TV industry, color TV companies are busy cooperating with them, and public opinion is faster and more direct than research and development of technology. This method has activated the enthusiasm of many companies, and also made many companies believe that as long as they grasp the content, they can also attract consumers' attention, so some companies have too much expectations for this method.

Fourth, there are more and more proactive OEMs. OEM is not a bad thing, but too many OEMs will easily make the TV market less and less technical, such as the desktop computer market. Now the TV market is trending in that direction. Even Terry Gou has bought Sharp and is ready to continue to focus on Sharp TVs because he is very confident in the OEM business of TVs.

Technology, sticking to it will pay off

There are fewer and fewer companies that stick to manufacturing, and more and more companies that are eating fast food and plagiarizing technology.

For example, the core of Konka's recent new product launch conference revolved around "LG screen, core". In fact, both LG screen and core are foreign technologies, not Konka's inherent technologies. Although these technologies combined together can also be excellent products, they are lacking in independent core technology.

Changhong's artificial intelligence, to some extent, represents a direction, but its main voice technology is also from iFlytek, and big data analysis is not a core technology of color TVs, but an applied technology.

At present, domestic first-tier color TV manufacturers such as Hisense, Skyworth and TCL are still insisting on investing in technology. For example, Hisense has many patents in LCD module and backlight processing technology, and in the next generation technology, its laser technology with independent intellectual property rights has become an important force in the market, and is influencing and driving more companies to participate in the laser large-screen market. Skyworth's cooperation with LGD on screens is getting deeper and deeper, and it has gained a lot of voice. In addition, there are many innovations in the combination of audio and video.

Although some companies have weakened technology, a good atmosphere of mutual learning has been formed among these technology-loving companies. Hisense is a competitor of Skyworth, but it is also a company that Skyworth respects very much. Skyworth's Yang Dongwen once said that he wanted to learn from Hisense. And Hisense also took Skyworth as a benchmark company to learn from its strengths and make up for its weaknesses.

As long as the technological competition forms a virtuous circle, there is hope for China's color TV manufacturing. As Liu Tangzhi said, the business model that relied solely on hardware to make money in the past will change. However, as a professional TV manufacturer, Skyworth also provides consumers with high-quality and reliable products by constantly seeking technological innovation. At the same time, it also prepares powerful content resources for consumers, does not deceive or engage in gimmick marketing, and takes practical actions to solve consumers' deep needs on the content side, driving the healthy development of the entire color TV industry.

The author believes that the fact that fewer companies pay attention to technology is not a tragedy for the color TV industry, but an inevitable requirement for the industry to upgrade. At this stage, the fewer companies involved, the more likely they are to win, and only such companies can represent the level of China's color TV manufacturing.

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.