Last week, Sony made waves internationally when it announced it would sell off its Vaio PC business and shed 5,000 jobs globally in order to better adapt to the competitive consumer electronics market worldwide.
As part of this major announcement, Sony also confirmed that it would push its TV business into the higher end of the market, focusing on premium panels and, in particular, 4K technology.
After years spent struggling with declining selling prices and falling margins in the TV category, retailers are now starting to see a return panels claw back some of their losses, driven by an increased supplier focus on premium product, higher resolution panels and greater penetration of smart TV technology.
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Speaking about the TV category and his expectations for 2014, the director of Panasonic Australia’s Consumer Electronics Group, Richard Tassone, spoke of high hopes for high-end panels.
“Within our business we definitely see an increased demand, especially in that premium section of the marketplace,” he said. “I think a lot of people are seeing new technologies come into play in the marketplace, and when they’re investing in product they’re willing to invest in premium product because they see the advantages — whether it’s in big screen or smarter TVs or connectivity with their devices.”
Importantly for retailers, Tassone said the growth in the premium TV segment was already starting to “put stabilisation into the marketplace” by bringing up price points. With retailers engaging in what many see as a race to the bottom for price over the past few years, the higher-end models also give retailers something to talk to consumers about, beyond the price tag.
“I think a strong premium set within the marketplace just offers retailers a very good opportunity to talk more to the customer about innovative products and really help with ASPs in the marketplace. We believe there’ll be a strong TV market this year…and it allows us to talk about some technologies and feature sets more so than just price points.”
Within the premium market itself, innovation has been driven largely by advances in resolution and display technology — namely Ultra High Definition 4K TVs and Organic LED (OLED) panels. While the 2013 International CES had a strong focus on OLED TVs, the emphasis shifted this year with OLED TVs playing second fiddle to 4K TVs at most major supplier stands.
For his part, Tassone expects this concentration on 4K to continue this year, especially for Panasonic.
“There is OLED in the marketplace, so we can’t say there’s not, but 4K is definitely…widespread across the market, where OLED at the moment isn’t as widespread,” he said. “The consumer choice at the moment is greater for 4K than it is for OLED, definitely.
“4K has obviously been launched by virtually all brands now, and so that’s the current premium segment in the business. But there’s obviously going to be other technologies that will come through, whether that’s OLED or something different. It is exciting in TV to know that we have 4K and we’ll have other options, and really it will come down to the consumer choosing what they feel is right for them.”