In 2023, LED display screens will face more intense price competition
In 2022, the LED display industry will run at a low level. The losses of midstream and upstream manufacturers have expanded, the survival pressure of small and medium-sized enterprises among downstream manufacturers has increased, and the growth of leading companies has declined. This series of impacts has led to a significant decline in terminal prices in the industry market since 2022, and has further promoted the intensification of market competition.
LED display products “price polarization”
Among LED display products, “the price trend of mass products and cutting-edge products is accelerating differentiation”, showing an unbalanced pattern of market development.
1. The price of LED display products with P1.2 and above spacing indicators continues to decline. P1.2 The price per square meter of the product has dropped to three or four quarters of what it was when the product came out. This has greatly promoted the market popularity of the corresponding products. The price of P1.5 products in the mature product line has even dropped to the level of 10,000 yuan per square meter, becoming the promoter of the “high-speed popularization” of small-pitch LED high-quality displays.
2. For emerging cutting-edge products, such as P0.7 and smaller pitch display products, the price is still high. The price of P0.7 products can be almost 10 times that of P1.5 products. Especially P0.4 level products, although they almost have a pixel display density comparable to large LCD screens, but the price and cost exceed the market’s affordability, which greatly limits the expansion of product application space.
LED display products present: From a technical point of view, the price and cost are positively correlated with pixel density, and the higher the pixel density, the greater the cost increase; from the time point of view, mature products benefit from the low technical threshold and large market size, especially over the years. The pattern of a large number of application demands and more brand supply has promoted the popularity of lower-cost products; at the same time, from the perspective of market demand, the higher the pixel density and the higher the cost of the product, the closer it is to a smaller application screen size , and other display products such as large-screen LCD, the higher the market overlap, the more difficult it is to expand market demand under high costs.
Due to the existence of these laws, LED display products are currently showing an extreme price “differentiation” trend: P1. Most of the following ultra-fine-pitch products are still in the market exploration stage, the market target is not very clear, and the price and cost are still high-even, the current minimum-pitch LED mass-produced products of a large number of industry companies are only P0.9, There is no specific plan on whether to continue to develop products with higher pixel density downwards.
“P1.2 products have become a watershed for competition!” Ultra-fine-pitch LED products below P1.0 need to develop massive transfer or new packaging and integration processes similar to massive transfer, which puts forward new technical requirements for industry companies . In contrast, P1.2 and above small-pitch LED display products can be completed with ordinary surface mount technology-this leads to a huge difference in product market thresholds.
P1.2 pitch products are now mainly facing “competition beyond technology realization”. Including cost competitiveness, comprehensive solution creative competitiveness, brand attractiveness, channel capability, ability to realize multiple business models, etc. The market competition of such mature products is shifting to the “market segment center”.
For example, large screens in digital cinemas, virtual XR production scenes, etc., currently mainly use mature products with pitches above P1.2. However, these scenarios often have higher requirements for product quality, visual effects, and reliability. Suppliers must have a leading position and a good image in the industry to truly participate. For another example, products such as P1.2 are also widely used in shopping mall advertising display, and shopping malls of different sizes and target consumers have completely different price acceptance capabilities-this makes LED display digital signage market, different brands of products The price difference is relatively large.
At the same time, mature types of products also pay more attention to the design of differentiated applications: such as cube screens, 3D naked eye screens, transparent screens, floor tile screens, lightweight products, large-size splicing units, digital signage all-in-one screens, etc. products. These subdivided products are completely developed according to the needs of the “application scene space”. There is no significant technical threshold, but they can be easily applied and bring new value of display.
In contrast, the market competition of ultra-fine-pitch products below P1.0, especially P0.7/P0.4, still takes “technical” innovation as the main dimension: on the one hand, through technological progress, sustainable Compressing product costs brings an upgrade in market competitiveness; on the other hand, the application goals of these products are all labeled with “high-tech” experience. For example, 100-200 inch 8K display, etc. In terms of basic process technology, emerging technologies such as glass substrates, active drives, new packaging and mass transfer also appear on ultra-fine pitch index products.
At the same time, among ultra-fine-pitch products, except for P0.9/p0.7 products, which are widely used in command and dispatch centers and large-screen projects in control rooms, products with smaller pitches often appear in the form of “all-in-one machine concept”. Even some products that require on-site splicing also use concepts such as “quasi-all-in-one machine” and “intelligent large screen” to directly integrate intelligent computing, audio, and even touch screen and writing functions.
“Compared to the pure engineering color of P1.2 and above pitch products, the ultra-fine pitch product market is more similar to traditional commercial or educational multimedia machines, and even home TVs”! It can be said that with P1.0 as the dividing line, LED display screens have formed two distinct market segments – different target applications, different product forms, different customer groups, different costs, and significantly different technical thresholds.
Emerging applications have limited support, intensifying competition in the industry
The future of ultra-fine-pitch LED display products is unlikely to be a “substitution” for traditional P1.2 and above pitch index products. Industry experts pointed out that this is not only determined by product cost, but also by the characteristics of product technical indicators.
In fact, the industry believes that products with a pitch below P0.7 have already faced the competitive pressure of large LCD screens. After the development of LED direct display to ultra-fine pitch, the market structure has changed from “the irreplaceable king of large-screen splicing” to “a member of the competition with LCD and other display technologies.” This change, of course, allows ultra-fine-pitch products to “imitate” the market value and terminal form of large LCD screens, but it is also bound to face the direct competition of liquid crystal display devices. Especially in the market below 110 inches, LCD devices have advantages in terms of price and integration.
Therefore, although the technological progress of ultra-fine-pitch LED products continues, the opening speed of the market space is not ideal. In fact, many companies have formed a pattern in which the launch of ultra-fine-pitch LED display products is more a symbol of “technical strength” than a “profit support point”: at least for now, the demand for ultra-fine-pitch LED display products is It cannot support a huge supply camp like the traditional small-pitch LED market.
Under the market structure of emerging applications and emerging products with ultra-fine spacing, the competition in the LED display industry will inevitably focus on “mature markets” and “mature product lines”. That is, the market competition intensity of P0.9 and above products continues to grow with the increase of industry participants (such as ICT brands, color TV brands, and LCD commercial display brands). From a certain point of view, LED display companies can no longer achieve continuous leadership of leading companies through iterative product generations and technical specifications as they did many years ago; instead, they must build a more complex comprehensive competitiveness system.
To sum up, today’s LED display companies rely “incomparably stronger” on other competitive factors other than pure technological progress. From the perspective of industrial development, the LED display industry will inevitably enter a “technical maturity period”, and then transform from a technology-led industry to a comprehensive service capability competitive industry. As the LED display screen enters the era of ultra-fine spacing, technological growth is approaching the ceiling, and the occurrence and development of this turning point is becoming an ongoing time.
