OFweek smart home network news: March 27, 2017, Sony Expo 2017 charm tour held in Guangzhou. In the Expo, the most noteworthy heavyweight product is the BRAVIA A1, a 4K OLED TV debuted at CES. Gaoqiao Yang, chairman and president of Sony (China), announced in fluent Chinese that the product will be available worldwide in China. The first issue was made, and its price was announced. The corresponding selling prices of 65 å‹ and 55 分别 were 35,999 yuan and 24,999 yuan respectively.
Xiaolei estimated that the prices of these two TV sets in China were a lot cheaper than those in the United States and Japan. With limited production capacity of OLED panels, the OLED TV A1 series will be launched in China in the world, and will ensure that the Chinese market's priority sales will be enough to prove its importance to the Chinese market. The CEO of Sony Vision Takahiko also revealed that he only participated in the press conference in China and did not participate in the press conferences in the United States and Europe. It can be seen that Sony has high hopes for China on the A1 product. After Expo, Thunder Technologies and several media interviewed senior executives of the Sony TV business. From this, you can see the idea of ​​Sony TV: Do not follow the trend and do not seek the results, just seek to seize more "Wang Sicong".
A1: Screen sound field technology becomes the biggest selling point
There are already many players on the market who are no strangers to OLED TVs. Compared with Sony's first OLED TV launched many years ago, the biggest highlight of A1 is that it introduced the screen sound field technology for the first time and realized the “sound and picture combinationâ€. An audio-visual experience makes TV no longer need to be equipped with external speakers, and the appearance is more simple and simple.
Sony A1's OLED panel has both the role of display and speaker diaphragm, so the first time on the TV to achieve a "sound and picture integration." The vocalized screen allows the entire sound field to be transformed flexibly and accurately, and can even be moved synchronously according to changes in the position of the vocal subject of the screen. The sense of presence and three-dimensionality are very strong. This exclusive technology from Sony is officially defined as “Acoustic surface screen sound field technologyâ€. With the help of artificial intelligence in the future, it may even be more accurate in determining which part of the screen sounds according to the screen analysis and bring better results to consumers. Audiovisual experience. Takashi Ichiro, president of Sony Vision, said that the realization of the screen sound field technology, the application of vibration technology, DSP technology, and speaker positioning technology, have been realized through years of technical accumulation and continuous efforts of many audio engineers.
The Sony A1 adopting the screen sound field technology no longer needs the sound units on both sides or bottom of the conventional television. In addition, the OLED panel does not require the backlight feature, and the Sony A1 TV is very thin in appearance, and the “front face†has and Only the screen and the extremely narrow border design allow users to immerse themselves in audiovisual audiovisual. In order to achieve this, Sony even directly hides the LOGO in the lower left corner, and the brand appeal is in the user's visual experience, which is impressive.
In Xiaolei’s opinion, people who spend at least 24,999 yuan to buy a TV still belong to the high-end crowd. A lot of cable powder on social networks indicates that this price is not expensive, and it can even be said to be very cheap. On the one hand, comparing the pricing of A1 in overseas markets, the price in China is indeed more attractive. On the other hand, the 4K HDR OLED TV to which the Sony A1 belongs is costly because of the objective factors such as the yield; more importantly, Sony A1 introduced "black screen sound field" and other black technology is even more amazing, for such an OLED technology set maker's killer products, the pricing is already value for money.
Sony (China) President of Consumer Electronics Business Xie Hao is very confident in China's high-end consumer market
Sony's (China) Consumer Electronics Sales Division President Xie Tao explained the pricing: "The price of the product is ultimately determined by the market. Pricing will take into account many factors, not just the A1. The price of any product model is going to be serious. Discussed and formulated.†Sony A1 is competitively priced, and in addition to studying the price acceptance of its target customer base (high-end people), on the one hand Sony’s need to open up the market as an OLED TV leader; on the other In consideration of healthy competition, Sony will not lose money to open up the market, but it will not pursue huge profits. The price of 24,999 yuan is a "reasonable" price. This shows that Sony is adhering to a very different thinking from some of the Internet TV brands in China that have zero-margin pricing in order to obtain user membership. And in order to eliminate consumers' concerns about the "diving" phenomenon, Sony executives made it clear that Sony A1 will not cut prices in a year.
Positioning: Stable in the high-end market NO. 1 position
When asked how to deal with the competition of China's Internet TV brands, Sony made it clear that these brands are not Sony's competitors because the markets they face are completely different and the customer groups are completely different. Sony only focuses on mid- to high-end markets. In fact, Xie Tao revealed that this is when the smart TV was just emerging two years ago. Sony has already made the judgment that customers in the Chinese market will become more and more subdivided.
Over the past few decades, the Chinese TV market has become more popular and has grown from nothing. The popularity of Chinese family televisions has increased from 30%-40% and 50%-60% in the 1980s and 1990s to every family today. After each family has television, the subsequent market growth mainly comes from the diversified needs of consumers themselves. In the past, people used to buy electricity from people and follow suit. When neighbors bought anything, each family now has its own preferences and pursues quality rather than paying attention to prices first. In fact, this is also a change in the concept of consumption embodied in the overall consumption upgrade trend in China – not just in television products.
Sony is targeting this trend and focusing on the mid-to-high end market based on its core competitiveness in terms of technology and product value. Therefore, in the past two years, Sony has seen fewer and fewer small-size products and larger and larger sizes. From the perspective of third-party data, Sony 75-inch TV has been the market leader to date, 85-inch is the absolute first, and 100-inch has achieved true-scale sales.
It is precisely because of the focus on the high-end market, Sony A1 pricing will not grow through the loss to expand the market, Sony does not pursue sales but the pursuit of user quality. At the same time, the Sony A1 series also attaches great importance to offline channels. The hundreds of partner stores in the world's high-end TV industry will sell the corresponding products, allowing high-end customers to actually experience the products before purchasing them.
In the high-end market, Sony is also increasingly concerned about the diverse needs of users. Before the A1 TV went on the market, Sony still had a short supply of Z9D. A few days ago, Wang Sicong, the richest family in the microblogging map, said: "The SONY Z9D has been set for so long. 100-inch, the world's first oh ~", The price of this TV is 499,999 yuan. Of course, the high-end consumer groups that Sony is referring to are not specifically referring to Wang Sicong's rich people. As long as people who pursue high quality and are willing to pay extra 1% for quality are the audiences of Sony TV. Therefore, the sales of products represented by 65å‹ Z9D also indicate that Sony TV is in the high-end crowd. A1 and Z9D are products designed to meet different needs. For example, the former is more suitable for users who love watching movies and emphasize audiovisual comprehensive experience, while the latter is focused on consumers who pursue the ultimate experience of the screen. Sony’s thinking is also to further subdivide its services to mid-to-high-end user groups and provide diversified choices for everyone. This shows that Sony is determined to meet the high-quality demands of high-end users.
Wang Sicong sunk his world’s first 100†Z9D at Weibo. I wonder if he will start a new A1.
The future: continue to seize more with high quality Wang Sicong
At present, the overall proportion of OLED TVs is only about 10%. Sony's goal is to achieve absolute leadership in this market, and the approach is to make OLED screen advantages fully utilized through black technology innovations like screen sound field technology. Picture optimization, user perception may not be too strong. However, after the unprecedented "sound and picture integration" and ultra-thinness achieved through the screen sound field technology, the user's perception of the advantages of the OLED screen will be particularly evident, and the market acceptance will naturally increase.
Takagi Ichiro revealed that OLED panels still cost 30% more than LCD panels in terms of production cost, and the yield is lower than that of LCDs. Therefore, OLED panels are "scarce," which is a rare commodity market. Sony wants to pass more of its own. Technological advantage to tap the potential of OLED, to obtain absolute advantages in the OLED TV market.
In addition to continuing to intensify black technology in hardware, Sony is also organizing the layout of artificial intelligence interaction and television content ecology so that people can be better than others.
For the first two years, Sony's most models are equipped with the latest Google official Android smart TV system. Naturally, the richness and experience of Android applications need not be said. In addition, Sony TV's voice search usage has also been greatly improved compared to last year, and it has already supported fuzzy search content. At the same time, Sony is also deploying artificial intelligence homes to explore more possibilities for the future, such as controlling smart curtains through TVs, Smart door locks, music playback, etc. Sony's attempt at smart homes on a global scale is expected to combine with Chinese domestic demand. Chen Hao, president of Sony's home display products division, said: TV was a family entertainment center in the past. We hope it will become an artificial intelligence family center. This is our goal.
In terms of content ecology, Sony itself is backed by Sony's entertainment ecosystem and has its own advantages in content such as movies, games, and music. It is already promoting the development of content such as HDR and 4K. These contents will be organically integrated with Sony TV product lines. . At the same time, it also cooperates with local Chinese content providers such as Huadian, Sohu, and QQ Music to access its content and also jointly develops HDR and 4K content. Sony's layout in content is also "high-end", that is, not only the pursuit of content quantity, but also the pursuit of content quality to meet its high-end user base.
After the end of the interview, Xiao Lei finally understood why the cable powder was said to be "cheap" for 24,999 yuan. He also had a more profound and comprehensive understanding of the Sony TV business strategy. In the midst of smart TV, Sony did not follow the trend and did not fall into the quagmire of price wars. Instead, it was based on the judgment of China's consumption upgrade trend two years ago. Through a clear differentiated marketing strategy, it was based on technological and product innovations. High-end user groups. With China’s transition from food and clothing to a well-to-do society with a growing number of middle class people, which means that Sony’s potential market is also growing, it’s not hard to understand why Sony TV has placed unprecedented importance on the Chinese market and is confident in this market. Now.
ALLIN , https://www.apiodisplays.com