Even though Japanese set-makers are aggressively switching to 4KTV product ranges, China will continue to dominate, with 42% of all TVs in 2017 expected to ship with 4K panels, says IHS Markit research.
The analyst calculates that in 2016, more than 25 million 4KTVs shipped in China and expects that by 2020 that number will almost double to 44 million, the same as Western Europe and North America combined. In Western Europe, more than eight million 4KTVs shipped in 2016, and this number is forecast to increase to 19 million in 2020. North American shipments are set to more than double, from 11.7 million in 2016 to 25.9 million in 2020.
“China is on a different trajectory to the rest of the world when it comes to 4KTVs,” said IHS Markit principal analyst Paul Gray commenting on the 4K TV and UHD: the whole picture report. “It is getting hard to buy a large screen TV in China without 4K. Japanese set-makers also aggressively switched to 4K product ranges, especially in their domestic market, but shipments in Japan remain constrained by consumer preferences for screen sizes too small to support 4K. Aggressive competition in the LCD display industry is fuelling a pixel race. Panel-makers have added 8K resolutions to their road maps and product plans, a process that will accelerate as new Chinese LCD fabs start production.”
Yet the report cautions that there are a few challenges for 8K development. It notes that its high pixel density demands either a very large screen or short viewing distance. That said, the analyst believes that China will dominate 8K shipments as its early-adopting consumers are likely to be eager for new features. 65” will be the dominant 8K size, driven by affordable pricing in China. Moreover, while Japan is planning 8K broadcasts from 2020, IHS Markit makes the clear observation that for most regions 8K video content will remain scarce for the foreseeable future.
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