TrendForce: Two Major Korean TV Brands to Reach 40% Breakthrough Market Share in 2015

Propelled by economic recovery of major markets such as North America and China, and the promotions for large-sized products, the 2014 all-year LCD TV shipment is projected to reach 215 million units, with an annual growth rate of 5.4%, which is more optimistic than the original forecasts. “The 2015 forecasted TV shipment scale is expected to reach 223 million units, with a 3.9% annual growth rate, which is relatively more conservative compared with this year,” indicated KK Chang, Research Manager of WitsView, a research division of TrendForce. The main reason is that TV panel prices have been rising for three consecutive quarters, significantly compressing the promotional flexibility for TV prices. Moreover, as the two major Korean brands, Samsung and LG, both aggressively fight for greater market share, other brands’ spaces for growth will also be limited. 

Samsung and LG continue to play the roles of leaders in the TV market. Even though the current TV market is entering the slow season increasingly, both brands have performed no signs of slowing down their positive product stocking, showing their apparent ambitions for conquering more market share in 2015. WitsView projects that these two major Korean brands will jointly surpass 40% of market share in 2015, and the Korean makers’ breakthrough will inevitably impact the market share for both Chinese and Japanese brands. 

On the other hand, for the Chinese brands, it is quite certain that the engine for domestic demand has been turned off. Therefore, all of the brands are actively expanding their export markets in attempt to create another wave of growth momentum. “Chinese brands will definitely encounter Korean makers’ adamant resistance, and even further affecting its export growth. The projected market share will only grow slightly from this year’s 26.3% to next year’s 27.9%,” added Chang.  As for the Japanese brands, due to the competition in recent years from the rise of both Chinese and Korean brands, they can only focus on the promotion of middle to high-end products, thus, the market share will be likely to fall from this year’s 19.1% to 16.9% in 2015. 

4K and curved TV remain most-watched specifications in 2015 

As panel makers are strongly promoting the 4K products, topped with the fact that TV brands are considered the key factor for product’s generational transition, WitsView predicts that the 4K TV penetration rate will significantly increase from this year’s 5.1% to 14.2% in 2015. In particular, the Chinese brands’ average penetration rate will reach 20%, as they continue to take on the role of pioneering the global 4K TV popularization. 

Compare to 4K’s positive expansion, the market acceptability of curved TV remains to be seen. In addition to each brand’s opinion on the necessity of a curved surface, the upstream panel supplies are heavily concentrated on specific panel makers. Single source for resources is a problem that will also cause a major obstacle for the popularization of curved TV. WitsView projects that the penetration rate of curved TV will increase slightly from this year’s 0.5% to 2.5% in 2015, with a conservative growth momentum.