The Shenzhen LED Show in mid-April, regarding the market environment "under the epidemic" in 2021, especially the industry downturn in the first three quarters of 2020, the industry began to recover in the fourth quarter, and faced the background of a crisis of "price increase" since the beginning of 2021. It seems "extraordinarily important".
"Everyone wants to start the'post-epidemic' counterattack!" "The LED industry that has been held back for a whole year hopes that this exhibition will be more breathable!" "I want to see everyone's thoughts through the exhibition, and more are Let everyone know'I'm working hard'!" "Enthusiasm is more important than effect. This exhibition must come!"
Under the background of manufacturers' "similar" purpose, the Shenzhen LED show in the spring of 2021 is splendid, especially led by innovations in "incremental markets" and "incremental scenarios", and a large number of innovative products have emerged.
Form innovation becomes the protagonist
"Small size applications are becoming one of the protagonists!" Facing the popularity of the "conference display" concept at the Shenzhen LED Show, industry experts said so. Including 100-200 inches of LED screens, fully adapted to large and medium meeting rooms, and even the classroom market. With the popularization of products with pitches below P1.0, such products can provide high resolutions of 2K-8K. For example, with P0.6-p0.9 pitch products, more than half of the exhibits are "small and medium size" for conference applications.
On the other hand, the participating companies also stated that “super-large screen applications must correspond to super-large “customers”!” However, the reality is that the interiors of super-large department stores are basically “small-sized split storefronts”—that is, , The number of small and medium-sized stores and small and medium-sized stores is much larger than that of "large customers": to meet the general store display needs, LED screens need to be more than one or two hundred inches of products.
In this regard, transparent LED window screens, LED floor tile screens, and "cheap and small-pitch video screens" around P2.0 are very popular. In order to save more space-that is, suitable for smaller spaces, fan screens, light box screens, and cylindrical screens have also been produced endlessly. At the same time, the folding screen with VR significance is also very popular: this product can create greater visual shock in the smallest possible space.
Perhaps, the display technology behind these morphological innovations has not changed in essence, but the product morphology can really be ever-changing. This has become the vane of the development of the LED industry. "Especially after the price of small-pitch products is reduced, it provides a better space for product form innovation: because only a small enough pixel pitch can the LED screen maintain a high-definition level of visual effects on small-size form-different products. From this perspective, industry experts believe that with the popularization of lower-priced and small-pitch products in the future, the climax of LED display form innovation will continue.
However, in the face of the climax of industrial product innovation, there are also some noises. For example, there has always been a phenomenon where brands blame each other for product creative plagiarism. "The overall form of innovation and prosperity cannot conceal the homogeneity of the market itself: because many innovations have no technical threshold, and it is even difficult to form a manufacturer's patent." This kind of imitation also makes the product application of the same form "various in quality."
For example, it is also a transparent screen, but the difference in resolution and brightness of the screen may be large. For the same conference screen above 100 inches, the effect difference between 2K and 4K is also very obvious. In more detail, there is a significant gap between different brands in terms of the optical structure design of the pixels, the reflectivity of the screen, and even the stability. As for whether to use flip chip, COB and other technologies, it is not restricted by specific forms and scene products.
This situation has caused the competition within the industry to not be completely benign, and is a major unfavorable factor hindering the long-term healthy development of the industry. Of course, the "chaos in the low-price market" has also contributed to a more active "technical innovation" trend for top brands.
Industry market stratification is clearer
"Does it focus on products with a pitch below p1.0? It is becoming an important point of difference among manufacturers." Industry observers pointed out that at the Shenzhen LED Show, some manufacturers worked hard to promote the latest technical standards, including P0.7/P0. In the application of 9 products, other manufacturers choose to focus on more mature standard products, which forms a very sharp contrast.
In this regard, some manufacturers feel that the scale of the market below P1.0 is limited, and although the future development potential may be great, it is uncertain when it will mature and popularize. Based on the company's own strength and traditional customer base considerations, it is in a "strategic wait-and-see" state. However, some companies believe that this is an opportunity to "break through the bottleneck of their own development": if ultra-high-definition video applications become popular in the future and do not grasp the strategic commanding heights of ultra-fine pitch, the company's business may always be limited to low-level competition, so Willing to invest in products with forward-looking technical standards.
Should the energy be tilted in mature markets or in advanced markets? The emergence of this choice difference is more because the technical threshold of products below P1.0 is indeed higher. This is not like products above P1.5. Through the most traditional surface mount equipment and technology, any company can achieve mass production." Moreover, in the market below P1.0, the main expansion points are concentrated in large and medium-sized conference rooms-with large and medium-sized meeting rooms. The customers in the meeting room are basically those with "comprehensive funds", "strict purchase process", and "fancy brand image." This has led to market competition that is inherently conducive to leading LED brands.
"Active corporate strategy, objective technical barriers, third-party customer characteristics, etc., determine the industry market stratification, which is an important direction for the further development of the LED display industry." Industry insiders pointed out that the separation characteristics of "mass market" and "high-end market" in the LED display industry are becoming more apparent.
Highlight self-confidence, and a broader future
At the Shenzhen LED Exhibition, the LED display industry showed strong "industry interest" in virtual reality represented by XR, ultra high definition represented by 8K, and smart video "high-tech" applications in the 5G era.
Some participating companies said that the application of LED large screens, whether in terms of technology level or market scale, has only "started a start" in the past four decades. This company believes that although the future "big cake" may not have the ability to divide, the future of LED display is entering the two-round "Hengqiang" iteration process of "technology" and "scene", which is predictable.
At the same time, in terms of short-term market goals, industry companies are also optimistic about the global market in 2021: in the era of vaccines, the impact of the global epidemic blockade will definitely decline, which is the basic premise for the recovery of the LED large screen market. At the same time, the shortcomings of western infrastructure exposed by the epidemic, more remote office demand developed by the epidemic, and further calls for the advancement of the digital society are all conducive to "industry demand growth."
In 2021, in the post-epidemic era, there will be almost no reason to prevent the industry from recovering rapidly. This may also be the reason for the turbulent crowd at this Shenzhen LED Fair. For example, products with a pitch below P1.0 are themselves the technical key to open the door to high-quality LED video displays of 100-200 inches. Without this technological advancement, LED display devices of this size would not be able to achieve high-quality and video quality. Take root and grow in application-oriented occasions. ——And 2021 will be the first year that this kind of product technology matures. This is conducive to the development of new application space in the industry.
In short, the Shenzhen LED Fair in the spring of 2021 reflects many trends in the LED display industry in 2021, such as scene and form innovation, conflicts between similar innovations, uneven product levels, differentiation of brands and market classes, and everyone's unanimous optimism. LED displays the consensus of long-term development and market prospects in 2021. As the first major industry exhibition in 2021, it is also a large-scale industry exhibition that is relatively concentrated after the 2020 epidemic. Shenzhen LED Exhibition is a "confidence" exhibition and a "determination" exhibition-the LED display industry will be big in 2021. Expand your ambitions.
