By now, the television set was supposed to be dead, roadkill on the digital highway as consumers eagerly embraced the mobile revolution. But presentations this week at the CES (consumer electronics) show in Las Vegas are telling a different story and new TV models are innovating as fast, or even faster, than other tech products on the market today.
Amazon’s holiday sales of TVs set records
Amazon recently reported its hottest holiday sales season ever and televisions were a major part of that success. Particularly hot were 4K equipped sets which sold in volumes, according to Amazon, that would have reached the top of Mount Everest more than nine times.
Amazon’s TV sales were further validated by comments in separate sessions at CES this week as Steve Koenig, the senior director of market research for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and Jürgen Boyny, the global director for the research firm GfK, both made presentations which indicated similar results. According CTA’s report, sales of 4K UHD TVs saw a 40 percent increase last year over 2015.
The continued growth of new content for home viewing such as movies and episodic programming from Netflix is also cementing the need for a TV set, along with the slow but steady rise of virtual reality software. “The television still has an unmatched high value in the home,” said Boyny, who spoke at a press conference for Consumer Electronics Unlimited on Thursday.
Samsung rolls out innovative new models
Half of the TV sets sold in the U.S. are made by Samsung and the South Korean company held their annual CES press conference on Wednesday. In the aftermath of exploding battery problems which forced Samsung to completely pull their Galaxy Note 7 smartphone from the market, Tim Baxter, president and COO for Samsung Electronics America, opened his presentation by quickly admitting that “this past year was a challenging one.”
But the company, which did not even show a picture of a smartphone until the end of their media event, made a number of key product announcements this week that involved televisions.
Particularly significant was the release of their new QLED TVs which Samsung claims represent a major improvement in picture quality. Indeed, the loss of screen strength when viewed from the side has been eliminated and the addition of a single optical cable to power everything attached to the TV now allows the set to lie virtually flat against the wall.
Thin is definitely “in” when it comes to TV technology this year. In their own announcements at CES this week, LG Electronics unveiled an OLED TV that is a mere 2.5 millimeters thick. Basically it’s now 65 inch wallpaper that gives the home viewer a sensation of the TV floating on the living room wall.
Samsung has also introduced a new concept in TV use: 24/7 viewing. Called “Lifestyle TV,” the concept (still to be released) is a video frame that is both television and picture display. Turn it off and instead of just going dark, the screen will display modern art, a family photo, or whatever you’d like to decorate your wall.
The combination of improved picture quality, remarkably thin screens, and finally the elimination of those pesky wires foretells a bright future for TVs, especially in the home.
“It’s not selling glass, it’s selling illusions and emotions,” said market researcher Boyny at CES yesterday. Whether it’s glass or emotions, TVs are selling in big numbers and they are not going away anytime soon.
