As Samsung and LG slash the price of their TV’s in Australia, Hisense which is a Chinese State-Owned Company has moved to raise the price of their models ranging in size from 75” to 32”.
A recent investigation reveals that Samsung has dropped the price on their TV’s some by as much as $3,000, in contrast, Hisense is now trying to use price to gouge back revenues lost through discounting.
They are also using price in an effort to try and get a seat at the premium TV table.
Investigations by ChannelNews reveal that Hisense has raised the price on several models some by as much as 16%.
Their 65” Hisense Series 6 UHD LED has risen in price by 8% while their 50” N6 has risen in price by 16%.
Several other models have also risen and their latest 65” Tv is now $4,499.
At Samsung the price of their UA 75” TV has dropped from $5,999 to $3,999 while their top end 75” QA75Q9 has dropped from $13,999 to $10,499.
Hisense who has a reputation for discounting is now trying to recover lost margin after several of their competitors accused the Chinese brand, who is struggling in the USA and Europe to sell their TV’s under their own name of “buying” market share in Australia in 2017.
According to Hisense sources in China Australia has been one of the “best” markets in the world for Hisense who recently acquired the rights to the Toshiba TV brand name, after being rejected by Sharp who accused Hisense of putting the Sharp brand onto poor quality Hisense made TV’s.
Hisense Australia who refuses to respond to media inquiries if they deem them to be “negative”.
The move comes as the Chinese TV maker looks to get a lift from the upcoming Soccer World Cup despite their TV’s not having the same high-performance processors as the processors found in an LG Sony or Samsung TV.
For example, with soccer, motion is a key factor and unlike the new Hisense TV models the new processors found in the LG and Samsung TV’s are able to smooth out the delivery of a motion image to a screen.
Hisense is desperate to get a seat at the Premium TV table the only problem is quality.
Now the Company is trying to use price as a premium indicator with the Company now demanding $4499 for a 65-inch Series 9 4K resolution smart TV a similar Hitachi TV for $1,396 at JB Hi Fi.
Consumers can also buy a new TCL 4K, HDR Premium 1200, Supreme TV with Local Dimming and Dolby Atmos for sub $3,500.
The Samsung price drop comes as LG and several OLED TV manufacturers including Sony, Panasonic and later this year Toshiba move to take on Samsun’s premium market dominance.
Samsung last year only got an 18.5 percent share of global sales for premium TVs, based on dollar revenue, down from 54.7 percent in 2015, according to research firm IHS Markit.
Meanwhile, Sony and LG have leapfrogged Samsung to grab 36.9 percent and 33 percent of the premium market.
Last week LG said that their TV division recorded a 77 percent jump in quarterly profit and a record profit margin of 14 percent in the quarter ended in March.
The Company is not releasing their growth numbers for the Australian market.
Reuters reported recently A look at online reviews of both OLED and QLED TVs in the past couple of years indicate that OLED TVs made by South Korea’s LG Electronics and Japan’s Sony gained fans because of the quality of the picture. In particular, reviewers cited more realistic colours and high resolution, as well as attractive designs and increasingly reasonable prices.
That doesn’t mean the Samsung QLED TVs don’t have their supporters. Picture quality has also improved, and prices have dropped but they don’t tend to be reviewers’ top picks.
“OLED TV’s jump in premium TV market share is a direct result of its outstanding picture quality,” said Ross Young, CEO of research provider Display Supply Chain Consultants. “Samsung may have miss stepped in their 2017 product by emphasizing design over picture performance.”
