The alliance between the three manufacturers sparked new competition in the color TV industry

Recently, TCL, Hisense, and Changhong jointly established the China Intelligent Multimedia Technology Terminal Alliance. This is the first time that China's home appliance companies have jointly established a smart terminal technology standard.

Hao Yabin, vice president and secretary-general of the China Electronics and Video Industry Association, said in an interview with a reporter from China Electronics News: “For China’s color TV industry, joint development is the only way to go after competition. In addition to TCL, Hisense and Changhong, 3 companies We hope that more companies will join the alliance. All companies will work together to develop operating systems and applications to make the industrial chain more perfect."

Color TV industry's new competition

After the competition, TCL, Hisense and Changhong established the first real technical alliance of domestic color TV companies.

In 2011, many people were honored as the first year of smart TV. In this year, smart TVs were rapidly promoted. Domestic TV companies have launched smart TV new products and application stores to seize market share.

According to data from Zhongkang, in the first quarter of 2011, Hisense, TCL and Changhong had 36.85% of the cumulative market retail sales and 31.76% of retail sales.

TCL is committed to the development of application stores based on Android+ and Windows systems. Hisense has developed the HiTV-OS operating system with completely independent intellectual property rights, and Changhong has certain advantages in building a 3C industrial system that spans the wide power grid, communication networks, and the Internet. The three color TV companies that occupy more than one-third of China’s market share have joined forces to form a technology alliance, which has attracted widespread attention in the industry.

In fact, the highly-competitive color TV industry does not have many true alliances. The so-called alliance is also a channel cooperation between domestic and foreign companies. Therefore, where the establishment of the alliance is reminiscent of monopoly, the TCL, Hisense, Changhong joint, is also a technical threshold built by several companies?

In the interview with a reporter from China Electronics News, Peng Yi, director of research and marketing at Zhongkang Market, said: “This alliance is called the Technical Terminal Alliance because it is a non-monopolistic alliance. With the development of industries and markets to a certain stage, It requires the establishment of standards to regulate the development of the industry. The establishment of this alliance is necessary, and it is in line with the development of the industry."

After the alliance is established, consensus will be reached mainly on the specifications of smart TV technology and operating system specifications. On the one hand, the industry can share technological achievements. On the other hand, the joint development of applications can enable the user community to achieve large-scale growth. The person in charge of the three color TV companies invariably expressed this view to the China Electronics News.

Intended to seize the initiative

In the fierce market competition, Chinese color TV companies can take the initiative only if they take the road of joint development.

Samsung and LGD have been leaders in the color TV industry because they are ahead of other companies in terms of related technologies in the panel and supporting areas. Samsung used to use the "market first" strategy to seize the market, LGD is through technical upgrading, to win the Chinese TV manufacturers Baotuan combat. In the fierce market competition, although China's household electrical appliance enterprises have gained more market share and good brand effect, they are still subject to people in technical standards and international standards. Chinese companies can only seize market opportunities if they set up their own standards.

With the strength of several companies alone, can we really promote the establishment of industry standards?

In Peng Peng's opinion, there are mainly six color TV manufacturers in the country. Currently, three companies have joined the alliance. It is undoubtedly helpful for the establishment of standards. However, each terminal company now has its own different resource allocation and appeals. Hisense, TCL, and Changhong can come together because they are in line with each other's ideas in the smart industry, and there are many technical synergies. In fact, every color TV company in China should join in, because the market urgently needs the introduction of unified standards.

Li Dongsheng, Chairman of TCL, said: “We welcome more companies to join the alliance in the future.” Lin Hongyi, vice president of Konka’s multimedia marketing division, also said in an interview with “China Electronics News” reporter: “Konka has its own stable partner. When seeking common interests, Konka is willing to cooperate with more companies to jointly promote the development of China's color TV industry."

Luo Qingqi, an expert in the home appliance industry, told reporters that smart multimedia has just started in China, and there are many unclear places. When domestic home appliance companies are subject to foreign companies in software platforms, panels, and chips, and profit levels are very low, they need to form joint advantages and increase technological competitiveness, thus occupying the initiative in the development of the entire industry.

Looking forward to the participation of the whole industry chain

China's independent development of its own smart TV standards requires the participation of broadcast and television operators and content providers.

The reporter learned that after the three companies set up alliances, they will conduct research on the technical standards of the application store, smart TV interconnection and interoperability application standards, and the technical standards of smart TV operating systems that currently exist in smart TVs, and regulate them. Since then, it will gradually develop various smart multimedia terminal technology standards such as smart phones and smart tablets.

In fact, China's independent development of its own smart TV standards requires the active participation of radio and television companies. At present, smart TVs launched by domestic companies are mostly based on the Android operating system. The content is more open and rich, but it is also faced with issues of content monitoring and network interconnection.

In addition, although the hardware architecture technology of smart TV has been solved, the current speed of development of software application stores is relatively slow. It is difficult for a single company to do a good job with the application store, joint development, massive information, and massive applications in order to attract a large number of developers.

"Smart TV is an industrial chain. It is hoped that the industry chain will include Internet companies, network operators, software companies, and chip companies that can all participate in the process to maximize resource sharing, terminal interoperability, and technology sharing," said Li Dongsheng.

Hao Yabin told the "China Electronics News" reporter: "The operating system of smart TVs has not yet reached a specific conclusion. The Andriod operating system is not the best choice for smart TV operating systems. We hope that the whole industry can unite and jointly develop China's own operating platform. , such as a smart TV operating system based on Linux or other basic architecture."