"Arts and Sciences" in the Television Industry

As the iteration of TV products accelerates, TV manufacturers are gradually divided into two camps: one is the "science students" who focus on technology and hardware, and the other is the "liberal arts students" who focus on content and software.

Science students in the television industry

The characteristic of "science students" is that they focus on technological innovation of TV products and use TV performance as the main selling point, which is specifically manifested in the ultimate pursuit of TV display, sound effects and industrial design. Their representatives are Japanese and Korean companies and some traditional manufacturers.

For TV products, the core components are not just a panel, but also backlight modules and image processing technology, which actually tests the collaborative innovation capabilities of the entire color TV enterprise in hardware and software. For example, many 4K TVs on the market can purchase 4K panels from upstream factories, but because the image processing technology and module technology owned by each company are different, the picture display effects of the same 4K TV are "very different".

Since the flat-panel era in 2002, the development of Chinese TV enterprises has shown a "rapid progress" trend, and they have quickly become the world's largest flat-panel TV manufacturer. However, due to the lack of independent innovation capabilities in display technology, the core components of flat-panel TVs mainly rely on foreign imports, which has also created a "huge gap" for China to transform from a major color TV country to a color TV power.

It is precisely because of the existence of these "science students" in the television industry that domestic televisions have greatly narrowed the gap with Japanese and Korean manufacturers, and even surpassed them.

Take Hisense as an example. Last year, its first generation of ULED TVs set the precedent for Chinese companies to compete head-on with Japanese and Korean companies in TV display technology. Peng Jianfeng, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronic Video Industry Association, said, "Hisense's ULED technology is one of the few original ultra-high-definition technologies in China's color TV industry that has reached international leading levels in the past decade."

Of course, there are also some "rebellious students" among these science students who explore the form and model of television. For example, the world's first split TV launched by Dr. Peng and the modular TVs recently released by Changhong, Haier and TCL have promoted the development of the television industry to a certain extent.

Liberal Arts Students in the Television Industry

The characteristic of "liberal arts students" is that they focus on the content construction of television products, using the entertainment and multi-functionality of television as selling points. This is specifically reflected in the active development of television video program content and function expansion. Among them, representatives are domestic Internet manufacturers and traditional television manufacturers in the process of transforming to the Internet.

In 2013, Internet companies such as LeTV and Xiaomi entered the smart TV market. In 2014, LeTV Super TV sales exceeded 1.5 million units, completing the annual sales target one month ahead of schedule. In order to seize the large screen in the living room, Internet companies are more inclined to focus on software, implant richer video content, introduce more attractive game resources, and inject more internal vitality into the TV.

Wang Zhiguo, chairman of Coocaa Network Technology, said, "After the TV is sold, I can still provide services to users, instead of others providing services to users after I sell the TV. At least we still have users." Retaining users has become the original intention of TV manufacturers to focus on content operations in recent years.

Aowei Consulting predicts that in 2015, the penetration rate of smart TV market will exceed 85%, and smart TV applications such as games and early childhood education will continue to dominate the market. Good interactive experience and comprehensive content construction make smart TV more in line with the needs of domestic consumers. In terms of "liberal arts performance", domestic manufacturers have far surpassed Japanese and Korean companies.

Yu Zhitao, CEO of Hisense HiTV Cloud, believes that TV products have reached an era where they have developed from single traditional attributes to a time-based development of both traditional attributes and scene attributes. Therefore, while Hisense focuses on hardware technology innovation, it will also launch the VIDAA3 smart system in the future to showcase its new experience in smart scene attributes.

For the consumer market, consumers with strong purchasing power will prefer the hardware configuration and sound and color effects of the TV. For example, for a curved TV priced at around 10,000 yuan, as long as the "science" scores are up to standard, the "liberal arts" scores can be supplemented by a TV box later. Most ordinary consumers who pursue cost-effectiveness prefer TV products with solid "science and engineering" and outstanding "literature and history", which are generally priced at around 5,000 yuan.

In the current TV industry, Japanese and Korean companies are still collectively pursuing hardware display, while Chinese companies are deeply engaged in intelligentization. A good TV product requires not only good picture quality and sound quality, but also a good experience. Only "both arts and sciences" can attract consumers. A TV with a serious "biased" approach is difficult to be recognized by the 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.