14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that emerging markets have become an important enough element in the finances of LCD TV makers that they have decided to develop special products for them, so as to fully exploit each new business opportunity.
No doubt users that kept track of events on the display industry will know of the many advancements made over the past year.
As far as just the LCD TV industry goes, LED backlights have become more prominent and overall image quality has improved.
There has also been a significant increase in the adoption of 3D panels, trend set to continue over the course of 2011.
However, these new technologies and assets cannot really reach emerging markets, where the emphasis is placed more on affordability than performance.
Knowing this, it would seem that LCD TV makers have begun to develop special product lines and specifications for emerging markets, or so DisplaySearch found.
In other words, makers of LCD TVs are designing products with lower specification for India, China, Russia and Brazil.
Brightness, for instance, is in the 350-400 nits range instead of 400-500 nits, while color saturation settles for 65-68% of NTSC versus 72-75%.
“Because of the variation in consumer preferences among developed and emerging regions in 2011, it will be more important to target the right market segments and regions with the right specifications and appropriate cost, instead of simply adding new features to product roadmaps,” noted Shawn Lee, Senior Analyst for DisplaySearch.
Companies that are investing in emerging TV markets while also creating high-end panels (in order to stimulate replacement demand in developed countries) include LG Display, AUO, Chimei Innolux and BOE.
Among the other means of reducing costs are restructuring of LCD backlights, minimization of the thickness of the glass substrate (0.5mm instead of 0.7mm) and color filter structure changes.