Total penetration of both 4K and 8K Ultra HD televisions in homes globally has now surpassed 200 million units on the way to 222 million units by year’s end, according to a Global Forecast on 4K and 8K Ultra HDTV report released this week by market research firm Strategy Analytics.
The predicted penetration total marks a nearly 50 percent increase from a year ago, the firm said.
As reported by HD Guru last week, another U.K.-based research firm, Futuresource, similarly predicted global shipments of 100 million Ultra HDTV units (mostly 4K) in 2018.
According to the study, the adoption trend is on course for Ultra HDTV sales into more than 600 million homes by 2023. At this time, the vast majority of Ultra HD televisions will have 4K resolution, with 8K-capable models relecting only 3% of the adoption mix.
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On a regional basis, the study shows that the North American market will pace the world in 4K Ultra HD adoption, with a household penetration rate of 71% by 2023.
Meanwhile, the Asia Pacific market will pace all regions in annual unit sales of Ultra HDTVs with a forecasted annual sell-in of nearly 46 million units by the end of 2018.
As for 8K Ultra HDTVs, global unit shipments are predicted to top more than 400,000 units in 2019 and more than 11 million by 2023, or about 6% of overall TV sales, Strategy Analytics reports.
By 2023, 3.9 per cent of Ultra HDTV homes in North America will own 8K displays, compared to 4.1 per cent in Asia Pacific and 1.7 per cent in Western Europe.
“The success of Ultra HDTV has been driven by technology adoption rather than content and services,” says David Mercer, Principal Analyst and the report’s author. “4K video and TV services are now becoming more widely available, meeting the expectations of 4K Ultra HDTV owners for the best quality TV experience. But our expectations for 8K services should be cautious: while Japan has now launched 8K TV in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the rest of the world will be slower to follow suit, given that the number of homes with 8K-ready TVs will remain low until the mid-2020s.”
“Owners of 8K TVs will primarily be watching 4K and HD content, while the TV’s image processors will do a good job of scaling most content to give impressive images,” added David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics. “Amidst the excitement surrounding 8K TVs, it is important to remember that image resolution, whether native or otherwise, is only one element in perceived video quality, and TV vendors and content players alike should not lose focus on other important drivers of consumer satisfaction, such as High Dynamic Range (HDR) and High Frame Rate (HFR).”
By Greg Tarr
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