Samsung has been the leader in the TV segment for more than 14 years now, and its QLED TVs have been making a mark in the premium segment. This year, the South Korean TV giant plans to sell even more QLED TVs to increase its market share and widen its gap with LG and Sony.
According to TheElec, Samsung is planning to sell up to 8 million QLED TVs in 2020, which is more than 50% compared to last year's 5.3 million units. The company's market share is already close to 90% in the QLED TV space. LG, Hisense, Huawei, TCL, and Vizio also make QLED TVs, but their market share is minuscule compared to Samsung's. Vizio sold 380,000 QLED TVs last year, while Huawei and TCL shipped 500,000 Quantum Dot TVs each. Hisense managed to ship around 300,000 QLED TVs in 2019. All these brands are expected to sell more QLED TVs this year.
QLED TV models accounted for 12.1% of Samsung's overall TV sales. While LG sells a few QLED TV models, it focuses on OLED TVs in the premium segment. The South Korean firm has more than 65% market share in the OLED TV segment. Samsung sold nearly twice as many QLED TVs as LG did OLEDs. Even Sony focuses on OLED TVs rather than QLED TVs in the high-end price category.
In the premium segment, Samsung captured over 52.4% market share last year, more than double compared to what Sony could muster. In the 75-inch+ TV segment, Samsung stood at the #1 position with a 49.6% market share, followed by Sony and LG
Samsung is also planning to launch QD-OLED TVs, its own version of OLED TVs, to rival LG. The company is also considering large investments in microLED mass production, a technology that is expected to make an entry in the ultra-high-end TV segment and is said to surpass both QLED and OLED technologies in terms of brightness and picture quality.