What changes will the innovation of curved technology bring to the future television landscape?

Looking at the TV market in the spring of 2016, curved TVs have become the absolute leader in market share with their "fashionable and novel appearance and perfect on-site display effects."

Although curved TV was initiated by Korean manufacturers, taking advantage of this favorable trend, in the domestic smart TV market in 2016, not only traditional mainstream TV manufacturers such as TCL and Hisense responded, but Internet companies such as Xiaomi and LeTV also actively invested, making the commercial war of curved TV more intense, and all companies are gearing up to fight this battle.

Why has sales increased rapidly with the advent of the curved screen era?

In the past decade, people were still struggling to choose between plasma or LCD TV. Now, plasma TV is on its way out, and the change in TV form has become a new focus. Curved TV has also become the highlight of R&D and publicity for various TV manufacturers, and they have all shown their own "killer weapons" in the market.

As the name suggests, the characteristic of "curved TV" lies in the word "curved". Through this special screen technology, the viewing experience can achieve an unprecedented effect experience. Its own golden curvature design can make consumers feel the same as the experience of the cinema at home. The "Difference Test of Human Eye Fatigue of Curved/Flat-screen TVs" report jointly conducted by the China Electronic Commerce Association, the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health of Peking University and Peking Union Medical College Hospital shows that the characteristics of the curved surface are more ergonomic and can reduce eye fatigue when watching TV for a long time, so that the "curved surface" has the effect of "high image quality + eye protection".

Although the concept of curved TVs has been around for several years, its advanced concept and high price prevented it from becoming popular. However, today, with the technological changes in the LCD era and the increasingly affordable prices, consumers have a positive attitude towards curved TVs.

According to the data from authoritative third-party testing agency Zhongyikang, in the sixth week of the year, the sales penetration rate of curved TV in the entire market was 10.0%, the retail penetration rate of curved TV in 55-inch TV was 13.2%, and the retail penetration rate of curved TV in 65-inch TV was 32.8%. Driven by TCL, Samsung and other companies with the highest global sales share, curved TV is gradually being accepted by the market. In the seventh week of 2016, TCL's sales share soared to the first place among all brands. Data from Aowei Cloud Network shows that the sales volume of curved TV in the first quarter of 2015 was 59,000 units, and the sales volume of curved TV in 2015 reached 1.5 million units. The sales volume of curved TV increased by nearly 30 times in one year. As a result, the industry consensus has been reached that curved TV has become the main development trend of future TV.

Consumer recognition and acceptance indicate that the market has been fully opened, which means that the curved concept promoted by manufacturers has finally been accepted by the market. As a new category of TV, it will take a certain period of time for consumers to recognize curved TVs. Every new product that leads the era needs to go through this process. The sales of 1.5 million is a good start for this process.

Is the trend of division in the curved surface era imminent?

The emergence of curved TVs has promoted the innovative breakthroughs of major traditional TV manufacturers and Internet upstarts, and has infinitely expanded the beauty of the "curved" design. Facing the massive attack of Internet TV brands, the traditional color TV market is also trying to defend its territory while trying unique technological innovations to gain a certain market share advantage.

The increase in competitive brands will directly disrupt the market structure, thereby lowering retail prices. Since most Internet manufacturers have emerged in the market by using content revenue to make up for low hardware prices. As one part of the ecosystem, hardware prices only exist as content terminals. If there is only a price war, traditional manufacturers will undoubtedly be at a disadvantage. In August last year, Gao Sumei, deputy director of the Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revealed a set of data in an interview that the average price of smart TVs in the entire industry has dropped by more than 30%, and traditional manufacturers have transferred about 30 billion yuan in profits to users.

Recently, Xiaomi, which has always been marketing its products with high cost-performance ratio, has also released a curved TV. This has further exacerbated the trend of camp separatism. Of course, domestic manufacturers rushing into the curved TV market can make the cake bigger for the industry. It is reported that at least 6 Internet companies have made or announced the production of TVs this year alone, and the total number of Internet companies and traditional companies involved in making TVs has reached nearly 20.

In the future vision of the curved era, can traditional brands overtake others?

Regarding the current issue of price war, Samsung once said it was too early: "The trend of curved screens is irreversible. Lowering of thresholds and segmentation of market competition are inevitable trends. However, if we want to expand the curved TV market, we should start with the industrial chain and ecological chain. The curved screen market is developing rapidly and has not yet reached the point where it has to rely on price competition." However, we must know that as an upstream panel manufacturer, Samsung itself has a unique innate advantage in cost control.

Due to various factors, most major domestic manufacturers did not promote curved screens in 2015, and instead used "smokescreen" on appearance and performance, overemphasizing appearance and weakening the performance advantage of curved screens. However, in the face of the reality that sales increased 50 times in 2015, they had to change their attitude and embrace the market, thus forming the current situation.

From a technical point of view, curved TVs have brought many opportunities to traditional TV manufacturers. Although Internet TV brands already have curved products, most of them are more like a simple expansion of the brand's product form. In comparison, the curved path of traditional TV manufacturers is closer to a technological upgrade.

For example, on curved TV products from overseas brands such as Samsung and Sony, we often see discussions on how curved the screen should be, whether it should be 3000R or 4000R? Looking at domestic brands, TCL, which focuses on curved elements in high-end products, mainly promotes the QUHD+ curved surface, emphasizing the combination of quantum dot display technology and curved surfaces, which will bring users a better immersive visual experience.

Therefore, the advantages of curved TVs are self-evident. From consumers to major manufacturers, everyone expects the addition of this curved design to bring new vitality to the TV market. On the other hand, the arrival of the curved era has also spawned another new turning point for the development of the TV industry. The new competition in technology, price and even brands will become more interesting.

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.