Curved TV: Technology, Market, and Potential - Report Example

Introduction

The television stands out as one of the prominent inventions to grace the technology world in the 20th Century. It has since become almost a necessity, finding its way into the living rooms of many people across the world. It has been the common people have been able to view events across the world until the smartphone came along. The history of the television can be attributed to a number of inventors. According to Hints (2011), Paul Nipkow, a German inventor, created a rotating disk that allowed the transmission of pictures over wire in 1884. In 1924, the first motion pictures were created by John Baird and televised in Europe, and would later invent the color picture tube during the Second World War. The creation of the Cathode Ray Tube by Vladimir Zworykin in 1920 marked the transformation of the television into an electronic device.

From monochrome to color set TVs, from analog to digital TV signals, and from CRTs to flat screens, plasma, LCD, LED and OLED technologies, the television technology has rapidly developed over the past two decades. TV types are mainly categorized by the technology behind them. They include CRTs which utilize a cathode ray tube, LCDs which utilize liquid crystal displays, LEDs which utilize the technology as LCDs but rather than utilizing fluorescent bulbs they use light emitting diodes, Plasma TVs, and OLEDs which use organic light emitting diodes. While CRTs were once famous, they were heavy, bulky, energy inefficient, and dissipated a lot of heat. The trend has since turned to flat panel displays with LCD, LED and Plasma TVs become a favorite for many. However, screen technology has had a massive leap forward with the development of OLED TVs which utilize organic light emitting diodes.

Structure and Operating Principles of Curved TVs

Fig 1: Curved TV (Source: Fung 2014)

The design of the Curved TV is based on the curved screen technology with the intention of creating a television that is eye-friendly. According to Fung (2014), the design originates from the human eye structure. The eye is spherical in shape, and it sees when light is focused on the curved retina. When a flat image is projected on the retina, the view becomes distorted at different angles. However, if the image is viewed from a curved screen, the retina recognizes it as being flat with minimal distortion as seen in the figure below;

Fig 2: Viewing Angle of a Curved TV vs. Flat TV (source: Fung 2014)

According to Sungjin Ann who is the principal designer of Visual Display at Samsung, by thinking about the human eye, the curved screen maximizes the immersion of the viewer on the screen (Fung 2014). A concave-shaped curved screen takes the shape of the eye and is a solution to minimizing distortion that is present in a flat screen. It essentially means that the entire curved screen offers the same viewing angle, just like the IMAX theaters. The innovation behind curved TVs is Willow, a thin and high performance flexible glass that is developed by Corning (Fung 2014). This glass is capable of conducting electricity and supporting both LED and OLED color filters. The technology has also led to the development of foldable screens, and despite its infancy, the technology that enables the curving or bending of glass is likely to usher in a new era in consumer electronics. The curved screen technology can be applied on the two main display technologies namely LCDs and OLEDs. The two main technology players offering curved TV technologies are Samsung and LG, with their products debuting in 2014. However, there are some challenges in curving the screen. One, LED displays usually utilize backlights, and as such it becomes a bit difficult to bend this backlight part since it could lead to a non uniform emission of light. Two, ensuring uniformity in the bend can be quite a challenge when it comes trying to achieve uniform backlight emission.

Different Types of TVs

Apart from TVs based on the cathode ray tube and the digital light processing (DLP) engine, the main types of TVs today are Plasma, LCDs and OLEDs. QLEDs are in their infancy. LCD TVs utilize liquid crystal display, a special flat panel that is capable of allowing light to pass, or blocking light. The panel comprises of segments which are block filled with liquid crystals, and their transparency and color changes by reducing or increasing the electrical current. Since LCD crystals can’t produce their own light, they rely on external light sources such as a fluorescent bulb to create an image (Goldberg 2016). LCD TVs offer a number of benefits which include no static image burn, low heat generation, greater brightness than plasma TVs, and cost lower compared to their LED and OLED counterparts. However, LCD TVs are prone to dead pixels. LED TVs are not a type of TV but are basically a type of LCD TV. Most of the technology is similar to that of the LCD with the difference being that LEDs use light emitting diodes for illumination while LCDs use a fluorescent bulb. LED TVs have become popular due to their low cost, thin size, and versatility. Since LED lighting is more efficient and brighter than fluorescent lighting, LEDs have better picture quality than LCDs. They are also more energy efficient. However, they do not offer the highest quality image.

Plasma TVs utilize 2 glass sheets, and in between the layers is a mixture of gases that are injected and sealed in plasma when the manufacturing process is taking place. When electricity charges the gases, they react causing illumination on the pixels in the screen. Plasma TVs are touted as being superior to LCDs and LEDs in terms of picture quality. While they are cheaper to buy, Plasma TVs are only restricted to large screen sizes upwards of 40 inches (Goldberg 2016). OLED TVs utilize organic light emitting diodes, and unlike LCDs or LEDs, OLED do not need a backlight to illuminate the set area. As such, OLED TVs can be made extremely thin and flexible. They process images faster and deliver a better quality image to the viewer. However, their downside is that they are very expensive.

Latest Development in TV Market

Lately, the battle among television set manufacturers has been waged in the area of resolution. The obsession has been about how high the High Definition can get, with 4K rendering resolutions such as 720p and 1080p almost obsolete. First it was Full HD, now there is SUHD which is Samsung’s 4K displays, Super UHD from LG, 4K HDR from Sony, and Ultra HD HDR from Vizio. UHD means Ultra High Definition. However, these display technologies are not the latest development in television, it is Samsung’s QLED. It is the next TV technology after OLED and it derives its name from Quantum dot and LED. According to Archer (2017), quantum dot TV uses LED technology whereby a film or layer of quantum dots is placed in front of a LED backlight panel. This film consists of tiny particles which emit their own individual color depending on their size, with Samsung claiming that quantum dots are capable of generating over a billion colors. This ability to produce many colors at a higher brightness means that there is greater color volume. As such, QLED could be said to surpass OLED’s abilities.

The difference between QLED and OLED is that while OLEDs will each emit their own light, quantum dots have to depend on LED backlighting. QLEDs are capable of “emitting brighter, more vibrant, and more diverse colors” (Archer 2017). They are also cost-effective to manufacture in comparison to OLEDs which translates to better picture quality for friendly prices. However, OLEDs have better contrast ratios than QLEDs. Already, Samsung has unveiled the QLED series of TVs namely the Q7s, Q8s, and Q9s. While Samsung has released some of the QLED TVs in flat panel displays, it has also released others in curved screens such as the Q8C. Therefore, it would seem that curved TVs will benefit greatly from advances in TV technology with OLED TVs and now QLED TVs having curved releases into the market.

Future Prospects for Curved TVs

It would seem that the future is not so bright for curved TVs if commentaries from tech websites are anything to go by. This is because the market already matured and the product is already on the decline in the Product Life Cycle, and there does not seem to any potential for a new market. This is simply because technology especially in the electronics industry tends to develop at a very fast pace, from mobile phones to audio systems to video systems such as Televisions. Curved TV did indeed usher a shift in the television industry with the promise of offering better viewing experience. However, unlike other television technologies such as backlighting and resolution, there is nothing more to develop about the curve. It is either a curved or a flat panel display, with foldable displays yet to gain traction. This means that the market growth of curved TVs solely depends on new technologies such as OLED, QLED, 4K, UHD, SUHD, and HDR. Between, 2014 and 2016, the curved TV market witnessed a rise in demand for reasons such as improved immersion, an enhanced sense of depth, a wider field of view, good looks, uniform viewing distance and better contrast.

However, demand for the same has significantly dropped over the past year, with critics arguing that curved TVs do not really have any significant benefit over flat panel TVs (Archer 2014). This has been amplified by major companies going slow on the release of curved TVs in 2017. For example, LG and Sony won’t be releasing any curved TVs in 2017. While Samsung is continuing with curved TVs even on its QLED platforms Q7 and Q8, it is important to note that the company’s latest flagship QLED TV Q9 release has a flat panel display. As such, the curved TV’s market share seems to be dropping. The reason is not the emergence of a new technology but the trend by companies to revert to flat panel displays. 3D television sets also seem to have suffered a similar fate, with many companies phasing out their production.

Main Players in the TV Market

The main players in the TV market currently remain South Korean technology firms Samsung and LG. Samsung has continued to be the leader in the global TV market, with LG ranking second and Sony third. For example, according to Larsen (2016), Samsung and LG had a combined 33.6% market share in terms if unit sales in 2015. While Sony has managed to remain relevant, other Japanese manufacturers such as Sharp, Panasonic, Toshiba, JVC, Pioneer, and Hitachi continue to struggle and have become almost irrelevant in the global TV market. As at 2015, Japanese brands had a combined market share of 15.3%. Chinese manufacturers have upped up their game and have managed to grab a significant market share amounting to 27.5% in 2015, with Chinese brands TCL and Hisense greatly making inroads into the TV market (Larsen 2016). Samsung boasts of 4K UHD TVs, OLED TVs and QLED TVs based on high end technology to deliver high quality pictures, same as LG. The two competing products from the two major TV players LG and Samsung are the LG OLED Signature and the Samsung QLED Q9. Reviews tend to give the LG’s OLED TV an edge over the Samsung’s QLED.

According to Katzmaier (2017), the Signature W is better than the QLED in terms of picture quality, color and contrast. However, the QLED offers better viewing angles. The strength in both players’ products lies in their quality. Both players have dedicated huge amounts of resources into research and development in coming up with top quality designs that have seen them release stunning television products year in year out. They also leverage on their brand names which they have built over the years as the best television brands, alongside Sony which is famous for its Bravia series. However, their weakness lies in their product pricing, with their products coming at a premium cost. This has seen them lose market share to Chinese manufacturers who offer lower prices. For the average TV watcher, the details of color, contrast and picture quality often go unnoticed, and Chinese manufacturers such as Hisense and TCL have taken advantage of this aspect to offer products that offer great value for money. For example, Chinese manufacturer’s global market share has continued to increase while that of Korean and Japanese manufacturers decline.

Recommendation

It is unadvisable for the company to venture into the curved TV market since it is on the decline. Major TV manufacturers such as LG, Samsung and Sony are giving the curved TV the back seat meaning that it is not popular among the consumers. This can be evidenced by LG and Sony announcing that they will not be releasing any curved TVs in 2017, while Samsung’s latest QLED unveiling, the Q9, has a flat panel display. The company could instead consider venturing into the low cost TV offerings category where there is a mass market. Many households are increasingly finding a television set as a necessity for reasons such as entertainment and news. Most of these households are not able to afford upwards of $1000 worth of Samsung and LG products. This is the segment that the company should target by producing quality but affordable television sets. Constant research, innovation and development are also critical in ensuring that the company is able to offer differentiated products that set it apart from the rest of the firms.