Mini LEDs: Unlock explosive growth and face OLED challenges

Mini LED TVs represent a new generation of display technology and are experiencing explosive growth. The introduction of the state subsidy policy in 2025 undoubtedly provides strong support for the popularization of this technology. However, the rise of Mini LEDs is not only the result of policy-driven, but also the inevitable result of continuous iteration of display technology and collaborative innovation in the industry chain. On January 17, 2025, CINNO Research held a member virtual salon on the theme of "Mini led: Unlocking Explosive Growth and Face the OLED Challenge" to discuss in-depth the technological innovation, market dynamics and industry chain development of Mini led, and analyze how it can accelerate its popularity through policy support and industrial collaboration, thus challenging the dominance of OLED.

Consumers are concerned about the performance improvement of Mini LED TVs, and the price is still a barrier to popularization

In the pre-session questionnaire on Mini LED TVs, the vast majority of respondents do not yet have a Mini LED TV in their home, but are more willing to consider the technology when replacing a TV in the future. The survey shows that consumers pay the most attention to hardware performance and image quality when buying TVs, especially the perception of the brightness, contrast and image quality of Mini LED TVs. Regarding the price range, more than half of the respondents tend to have mid- to high-end Mini LED TVs of 3,000 to 6,000 yuan. At the same time, the diversity of design and application scenarios is most intuitivechanges, but precise light control and image quality improvements are harder to detect. Price is considered to be the main factor affecting the popularity of Mini LED TVs.

Mini LED TVs are experiencing explosive growth, with falling costs driving market penetration

According to data from CINNO Research, the domestic Mini LED TV market penetration rate is expected to reach 12% in 2024, showing explosive growth. Since the epidemic in 2020, the TV market demand has rebounded, and Mini LED has gradually become the market segment with the most growth potential, with sales doubling for four consecutive years. Cost reduction is the key to this growth. The average price of Mini LED has exceeded 7,000 yuan in 2024, and the price difference with non-Mini LED TVs has narrowed to 2.2 times. The trend of large sizes and the national subsidy policy have also promoted the demand for cost-effective large-size Mini LED TVs.

As the technology matures, Mini LED begins to penetrate the mid- to low-end market and is expected to usher in a wider consumer group. The number of new models will surge in 2024, with an annual growth rate of 147%. Although the number of partitions of some models has been reduced, the peak brightness has increased to ensure image quality performance, and prices have further declined. The initial price of 75-inch models with less than 500 partitions has dropped to less than 10,000 yuan, further lowering the consumer threshold.

Domestic brands dominate the Mini led market

In 2024, the domestic Mini LED TV market is mainly dominated by domestic brands such as Hisense, TCL, Skyworth and Xiaomi, accounting for 94% of the market share. With its extensive product line, Hisense launched 21 models and sank Mini led technology to the low-end market, and the 15n, 15n Pro and other series became popular models. TCL focuses on boutique routes, the XCQ series covers the high-end market, while the T series and Thunderbird series focus on the low-end market and perform well.

In 2024, Skyworth gradually enriched its product line and launched six new products, focusing on the low-end market. Although the number of models released by Xiaomi is small, its S series and S Pro series are outstanding in the market in 2024 and become the first choice for consumers with ultra-high cost performance. Overall, domestic brands have promoted the popularity of Mini led technology and the rapid growth of market share by reducing the number of zones, improving cost performance, and sinking product lines.

Upstream industry chain to reduce costs and increase efficiency, Mini led technology ushered in a new breakthrough

With the continuous progress of Mini led technology, the upstream industry chain has made important efforts to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the backlight link.REQUEST NOT VALIDED is still more competitive than OLED. However, in the field of microscopy, high-end products tend to use MicroLEDs, and fast LCDs are selected at the middle and low end to save costs, which makes it difficult to increase the penetration rate of Mini LEDs. At present, the main application scenarios are focused on the pursuit of high brightness and long life display in medium and large sizes.

Q2: The 2025 national subsidy policy continues to be implemented, so will it still have a significant role in promoting the speed of popularization of mini led technology?

A2: Starting in August 2024, the country will promote the penetration rate of Mini led in the domestic market to increase significantly in the third quarter of 2024. 24 The obvious growth in the second quarter was driven by the upstream cost reduction technology change and the large-scale upgrade of the domestic TV market. It is expected that the penetration rate of Mini led will continue to grow in the future, but considering that the TV switching cycle is long and the demand for switching is released in advance in the next few years, the promotion effect on the penetration rate of domestic Mini led may be slowed down with the extension of the national supplementary time.

Q3: Will mini LEDs be a complete replacement for regular LCD TVs?

A3: Mini LEDs were used in flagship products in the early days and have now expanded to high, medium and even low-end markets. Due to the trend of large size, Mini LEDs are mainly concentrated in models above 65 inches, and the penetration rate increases.In the long run, the large-size market may become the new standard. However, in addition to the small screen flagship demand in markets such as Europe, the small and medium-sized market is still a price-sensitive market in most cases, and it is difficult to fully penetrate the LCD market. Therefore, the Mini led may still exist for a period of time as a middle and high-end synonym. The Mini led explosion will benefit the upstream lamp beads, membranes, lamp drives, and other industries. Especially as the use of lamp beads decreases, the demand for light emitting structures, diffusion films, microlens structures, light blocking structures, and independent image quality and light control chips can be expected to grow.