Chinese Consumer Demand for LED-Backlit LCD TVs Soars in 2010

Chinese consumers are aggressively adopting LCD-TVs that use Light Emitting Diode (LED) backlighting, causing domestic shipments in 2010 to surge by a factor of nearly 14, according to the display market research firm iSuppli Corp.

Shipments of LED-backlit LCD-TVs in China are set to rise to 5.5 million units in 2010, up from just 406,000 in 2009.

“With sales being driven by a government stimulus plan designed to promote LCD-TVs, demand in China is so robust that availability of LED-backlit sets has become constrained, causing some consumers to delay their purchases until they can get the product they want,” said Riddhi Patel, director for televisions and retail services at iSuppli.

Nonetheless, China’s LED-backlit LCD-TV sales continue to pick up steam as the year progresses. Shipments amounted to 953,000 units in the second quarter of 2010 and then are forecasted to climb to a whopping 1.6 million units in the third quarter. This will mean that LED backlit sets will reach a penetration rate of more than 18 percent of the entire LCD-TV market.

Penetration rates are expected to deepen to 23 percent in the fourth quarter, or even to more than 30 percent for premium brands such as Hisense, Skyworth and Samsung.

And this is only the beginning.

iSuppli predicts 40.1 million LED-TV units will be sold in China in 2014—a figure that translates into a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 150.6 percent when measured from 2009 to 2014.

Revenue growth likewise will be staggering, jumping to $24.8 billion by 2014, up from a mere $777 million in 2009. With revenue CAGR of 100 percent for the forecast period, it is no mystery why local and foreign OEMs are ramping up support for LED-TVs.

Just the same, given the short supply of LED-TVs in China, and with prices taking longer than expected to fall, consumers have become more cautious in their buying decisions, with some going as far as postponing an LCD-TV purchase until an LED-backlit set becomes available. Consumers, who previously bought whatever TV set could be found on the market regardless of technology trend or features, now have developed decidedly more discriminating tastes in their television purchases.

Other Advanced TV Features Off to a Slow Start
While LED technology is in high demand in China, other new features, such as Internet capability and 3-D, have met with less enthusiasm.

For its part, the Chinese government’s own policies are serving to inhibit the growth of Internet-Enabled Televisions (IETVs). A government crackdown on what content consumers can view is a bitter pill to swallow for some consumers, who can’t justify paying for an extra feature that cannot be used to full potential.

Still, the volume shipments of LCD IETVs China will continue to rise as local OEMs strive to make Internet connectivity in televisions a standard feature in their high-end products. Without abundant and attractive content support, IETV as a feature will not be one that fuels the China market, iSuppli believes.

In the case of 3-D LCD-TVs, such sets are still far from common, with consumers appearing to evince little interest. As a result, 3-D will do little to help boost overall LCD-TV shipments in this year, even though the feature has good potential and will become more popular when prices decrease and content becomes available.

Plasma Infusion
Overall, the slow retreat of LCD-TV prices in China during the second quarter made feature-rich plasma TVs more attractive than similarly sized LCD-TVs in the country, accounting for a rise in the shipments of plasma panel displays during the period.

Plasma’s advantage won’t last long, however: The continuing decline of LCD-TV prices in the third quarter is expected to squeeze shipments of plasma units, which once again will feel the pressure from their more popular rival technology.