Earlier this week, US retail giant Walmart confirmed its plans to buy the smart TV brand Vizio in a deal worth $2.3 billion. Initially, Walmart said this acquisition was part of its strategy to expand its Walmart Connect advertising business, but market watchers say this transaction may have some negative effects on Samsung's smart TV position stateside.
Samsung is the number one TV brand in the USA at the moment, but Walmart and Vizio might just have enough combined power to topple over the market leader and grab the top two spots on the podium for themselves.
One of the keys to this possible outcome lies in Vizio's TV operating system, SmartCast, which has been improving its market reach and net revenue and contributed to a 27% annual increase in advertising revenue for Vizio in 2023.
Walmart and Vizio could be market leaders in the USA?
Walmart has its own TV brand in the USA, called ONN, which currently operates on the Roku TV platform. However, Vizio's SmartCast TV OS is gaining ground, and this acquisition might mean the ONN TV brand will switch over to SmartCast and allow Walmart to record higher advertising revenue gains.
According to market watcher TrendForce, merging the ONN and SmartCast might give Walmart's TV brand and Vizio enough combined market share to overtake Samsung, the smart TV market leader in the USA, this year. The two brands could also break into the top-5 TV brands globally.
Walmart's TV brand, ONN, already surpassed TCL, Vizio (before Walmart's acquisition), Hisense, and LG, to become the USA's second-largest TV brand behind Samsung. TrendForce suggests that, by combining forces, ONN could become the 2nd-largest TV brand in the USA, and Vizio could take the top spot, pushing Samsung down to the 3rd place on the podium.
Whether these predictions will come to pass is to be determined. After all, Samsung is the market leader for a reason — or several. Its Tizen OS platform is tried and tested, the quality of its TVs is vastly superior to most other brands, and Samsung offers access to unique platforms such as TV Plus and Gaming Hub, which add real value to the user's experience. And now, Samsung's upcoming TVs for 2024 boast even better image quality thanks to exclusive AI advancements.
