Smart TV Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Smart TV Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The smart TV market is expected to register a CAGR of 16.52% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2026. With the preliminaries of the fourth industry generation, connected TV manufacturers are competing for the latest innovations in the user interface, content aggregation, and application development, such as smart TVs come with an operating system that can run apps and widgets, which can stream videos and music. Set with unified internet capabilities, smart TVs offer numerous advanced computing abilities and connectivity. Smart TVs' current capabilities allow consumers to search, chat, browse, share, update, and download content. Smart TVs are expected to face an emphasis on experience design over the next five years.

Key Highlights

• The availability of content that is ready for the consumers to use their smart TVs has been clinical in the demand surge. Nations, such as India and China, have a considerable consumer base at low and middle-income levels. Price optimization has offered a range of opportunities for TV manufacturers in small to mid-high price ranges. Streaming media such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Google Chromecast are changing the consumers' viewing experience. Several manufacturers are teaming up with OTT (over-the-top) content and device providers to provide various features with no requirement of a set-top box. For instance, TCL Corporation collaborated with Roku Inc. and introduced a 4K HDR Roku TV. Smart TVs have made it possible for users to run applications that were developed earlier for smartphones.
• The 4K UHD segment is expected to see significant growth over the forecast period. The drop in the prices of these TVs is drawing customers and triggering demand across emerging economies. The increase can be associated with innovative features, such as high resolution and high picture quality, with Dolby Digital sound that provide theater experiences on larger screen sizes. The adoption of innovative technologies, such as Quantum dot LEDs (QLEDs), across the Ultra-high-definition (UHD) in 4K TVs, is expected to fuel the segment demand period. Televisions belonging to this range have high penetration rates when compared to the others. 4K TVs also pack in screen technology, such as high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (WCG).
• In recent years, some of the significant security vulnerabilities targeting smart TVs were developed by the Central Intelligence Agency but were stolen. Some of the popular smart TV makers, such as LG and Samsung, collect tons of information about what users are watching, help advertisers better target ads against their viewers, and suggest what to watch next. The FBI recommends placing black tape over an unused smart TV camera, keeping smart TV up-to-date with updated patches and fixes, and reading the privacy policy to understand better what the smart TV is capable of. The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted the lifestyles and routines of all consumers. Shelter-in-place orders and work-at-home mandates have driven in-home video consumption to unprecedented levels.
• However, in terms of supply, the market is getting negatively affected due to the closing of borders, affecting the supply chain. For instance, TCL's panel manufacturing subsidiary, CSOT, has its facility in Wuhan, and Wuhan being the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, TCL is struggling to run the panel manufacturing facility. Last year TCL shipped 32 million TVs globally, but in 2020 it may see around a 10% decline due to the panel supply shortages and lower global demand. Samsung, which has TV manufacturing facilities in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Mexico, and Vietnam, was relatively less affected at the beginning of the outbreak. But with Hungary closing its borders and the Czech Republic locked down, Samsung is facing difficulties operating its European facilities.

Key Market TrendsQLED is Expected to Witness Significant Growth

• QLED stands for quantum light-emitting diode. QLED panels work the same way as LED TVs. There is a backlight built from hundreds or thousands of LEDs that light the individual pixels. QLED improves on standard LED by employing nanoparticles (quantum dots) to supercharge the brightness and color of these individual pixels. The result is a more vibrant color. QLED Alliance has been developed, which consists of Samsung, Hisense, and TCL, devoted to furthering the Quantum Dot cause. This is aiding in the market growth and helping in new product development. The market is mainly growing due to vendor releases occurring in the past year. QLED panel is expected to retain the highest market share in the future due to increased adoption since it comprises various features that other panel types are unable to offer.
• For instance, although both OLED and QLED are costly, some of the cheapest OLEDs cost around USD 1800, while the starting price of some QLEDs is USD 1000. Moreover, 55 inches is the smallest screen size for OLEDs, while QLEDs can be much lower. QLED's innovations, deeper blacks, better colors, and wider viewing angles tackle three traditional LED and LCD technology problems, further driving the market demand. Samsung is the only manufacturer without an OLED set since it believes that its QLED technology is just as capable, which it comes to the best quality picture. It was the first vendor to debut the QLED panel. Other vendors, such as LG, Panasonic, and Sony, have all chosen OLED displays for their high-end sets.
• In July 2020, Samsung launched announced the launch of a new series of QLED Smart TVs – the QT67 range – in its home market of South Korea. These are the first QLEDs from Samsung to achieve a first-class energy efficiency rating. In September 2019, OnePlus officially unveiled its smart TV, representing the Chinese company's first proper foray into non-smartphone hardware. However, QLEDs cannot produce precisely the same level of inky blacks as pricier OLED TVs. That is because OLED panels do not use a uniform backlight. Instead, each pixel is an LED that can be switched on and off to create colors or total darkness. By switching the LEDs off completely, OLED avoids the light pollution from the backlight that makes things look a little grey on LED TVs.
• In March 2020, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd announced that its latest and expanded line of 2020 QLED 4K and 8K TVs are available on Samsung.com and at select retailers nationwide. The 2020 range features an expanded 8K Series, larger screen sizes for 4K and 8K models, improved AI capabilities designed to provide the best picture quality and dynamic sound experience. In addition to top-of-the-line picture quality and enhanced audio performance, Samsung's latest 2020 QLED line offers consumers access to a varied selection of entertainment with Samsung TV Plus. With over 100 channels of streaming content, users will have the chance to explore across genres like news, sports, gaming, and lifestyle.

Asia-Pacific is Expected to Witness Significant Growth

• Asia-Pacific is the dominating market for smart TVs and is expected to continue its dominance over the forecast period, owing to increasing demand for smart TVs by end users and the emerging economies of India, China, and Japan. The increasing net disposable income of consumers has been a significant factor for continued demand in the region. The growth is also attributed to the rising popularity of OTT VOD platforms, such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, HOOQ, and others, across this region. The availability of supporting content for these devices, such as HD videos, HD set-top boxes, and games, has further acted as a catalyst in demand generation.
• The presence of the Chinese players has been critical in the competitive pricing of products in these markets, many of which have entered into partnerships with e-commerce platforms to offer their products. Third-party service providers have helped in assuring that consumers opt for these products, helping the market indirectly. In Asia-pacific, India is the most attractive market for vendors. In July 2020, Samsung launched the QLED 8K TV line in India. It has an Active Voice Amplifier technology that recognizes exterior noises and increases the volume of voices in content accordingly if surrounding conditions become too loud. In June 2020, TCL launched its latest QLED TV series in the Indian market. It features a pop-up camera, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos support. It can upscale non-8K content to 8K.
• In July 2020, Indian television brand Shinco launched its latest television, the S43UQLS 43- inch 4K HDR LED Smart TV. This is one of the most affordable 4K televisions on the market of this size right now, as most 43-inch televisions at this price have full-HD LED displays. Flipkart (an Indian e-commerce company) formed a strategic partnership with Nokia that allows it to develop, facilitate the manufacturing and distribution of Nokia Smart TVs while managing the market strategy. As a result, in June 2020, Flipkart launched a new Nokia-branded smart TV. It runs Android TV 9 Pie software, meaning there is a dedicated Google Play Store inside the smart TV to download and install applications and games.
• In April 2020, Sharp announced two new 8K smart TVs for the Japanese market named Sharp Aquos 8T-C70CX1 and Sharp Aquos 8T-C60CX1. They feature 70-inch and 60-inch 8K panels, respectively. The company will be only manufacturing 2,500 units of them, and they will go on sale in April. The TVs come with a Sharp Medalist Z1 image processing engine and Rich Color Technology Pro to offer vibrant and realistic colors and right viewing angles. Both the TVs come with two HDMI 2.1 ports for 8K 60 Hz and 4K 120 Hz video inputs. The TVs also support dedicated 8K sports mode and can to upscale 4K content to 8K. They are even certified for HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HLG. Further, these TVs also come with 70W (2.2.2) speakers powered by Eilex PRISM.

Competitive Landscape

The smart TV market consists of several players. In terms of market share, none of the players currently dominate the market. This industry is being viewed as a lucrative investment opportunity due to the enormous consumer interest gained recently. The companies invest in future technologies to gain substantial expertise, which would enable them to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

• April 2020 - Sony Electronics Inc. revealed pricing and availability for the latest 2020 LED and OLED television models. Sony's processors will power the 2020 TV lineup with the advanced color and gradation of TRILUMINOS Display. The TVs are also equipped with Google Assistant to help quickly access entertainment, control smart devices, get answers on the screen, and more using the voice.
• March 2020 - LG Electronics (LG) announced the sale of its 2020 TV lineup, led by 14 OLED models, which includes the GX Gallery series, real 8K ZX models, and 4K Ultra HD TVs. LG is taking the viewing and gaming experience into new territories to be followed by markets in Europe and other regions.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

Companies Mentioned

LG Electronics Inc.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd
Sony Corporation
Panasonic Corporation
IZIO Inc.
Apple Inc.
Hisense Group Co. Ltd
Koninklijke Philips NV
TCL Corporation
Insignia Systems Inc.
Haier Group Corporation
Hitachi Ltd
Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Please note: This publisher does offer titles that are created upon receipt of order. If you are purchasing a PDF Email Delivery option above, the report will take approximately 2 business days to prepare and deliver.