Weak consumer spending and currency fluctuations will result in global LCD TV sales increasing by just 1.86 percent next year, rising from 216 million sets this year to 220 million units in 2016, according to a report from TrendForce. However, the increasing affordability of 4K TVs will result in their market penetration growing to around 23 percent, compared with this year’s projected rate of 13-14 percent, said the report. Other key trends highlighted by the researcher include larger screen size and increasing prevalence of high resolution. TV sets with screens sized 50 inches and above now account for 19.7 percent of the total shipments, up from 18.3 percent a year ago, and expected to rise to around 22 percent in 2016, with 65-inch sets becoming a major focus for vendors. In addition, the presence of high-resolution TVs will increase in the entry-level, 60Hz segment, said the report.
Finally, around 4 million curved-screen LCD TVs will be shipped globally this year owing to aggressive promotion by Samsung and several Chinese vendors, with the figures expected to hit 8 million next year, nearly doubling the market penetration from this year’s projected rate of 1.9 percent to 3.6 percent.
