Santa Clara, Calif. — Global curved-screen TV display shipments will reach nearly 800,000 units in 2014, and are expected to exceed 6 million units by the end of 2017, according to a new study by NPD DisplaySearch.
Curved TV is a styling-led design fashion that is expected to peak in LCD TVs in 2016, although growing shipments of OLED TVs are forecast to boost curved-TV shipments in 2017 as well.
The latest NPD DisplaySearch “Quarterly TV Design and Features Report” points out that TV manufacturers added curved-screen displays last year in addition to OLED TVs and Ultra HD sets in an attempt to revitalize lagging global TV market revenues, which peaked in 2011.
“The novelty of curved screens is expected to wear off with time, leading to shipments peaking and then tailing off,” said Paul Gray, DisplaySearch European TV research director. “Even so, curved screens will have completed the important task of differentiating new high-end models, thereby helping to boost overall value in the global television market.”
Curved LCD displays emerged as a spoiler for new OLED models at IFA 2013, but with Samsung, LGE and several Chinese brands all showing curved-screen LCD TV models at this year’s International CES, they are now more commonly seen in the market.
“Brands are not staking their futures only in curved screens or any other single feature, but are instead exploring a whole mix of features to attract television buyers,” Gray noted.
In addition to curved screens, TV manufacturers are leveraging other technologies to spur TV sales. Although widely promoted, OLED TVs still face significant manufacturing problems and at best only 100,000 will ship in 2014, with shipments likely to break the million-per-year level only in 2016. “LCD has proved a tough act to beat, because it is a mature, efficiently manufactured technology, with a surprising amount of room for innovation left in it,” according to Gray.
Meanwhile, shipments of Ultra HD “4K” TVs are forecast to exceed 12 million units in 2014, rising to 62 million in 2017, the firm said.
Demand and shipments of 4K TVs will be dominated by China, with 83 percent of 4K TV shipments in 2013, falling to 46 percent in 2017, as the rest of the world catches up. “4K TV is currently grabbing a lot of headlines, but it would not have been possible to deliver 4K, had there not been investment in connected TVs, over the past five years,” said Gray.
For further details, the NPD DisplaySearch “Quarterly TV Design and Features Report” is available at by contacting Charles Camaroto at (888) 436-7673 at [email protected].
