Financial Associated Press, October 27 (Reporter Wang Biwei Lu Tingting) The demand for laser projection is increasing, and the sales volume and sales in the third quarter of this year have achieved a year-on-year increase of more than 2 times.
Some analysts in the industry believe that with the younger consumers and the trend of large-screen entertainment demand, laser projection with a stronger sense of experience will become the choice of more people, and the market capacity of laser projection will be further expanded. Under this circumstance, industrial chain companies represented by Guangfeng Technology (688007.SH), Hisense Video (600060.SH), and United Optoelectronics (300691.SZ) are expected to benefit.
Laser projection sales surge
According to the total data of Aowei Cloud (AVC) omni-channel push, in the third quarter of 2022, the sales volume of home laser projectors was 97,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 222%, and the sales volume was 630 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 214%.
Smart home projectors can be divided into light bulbs, LEDs, and lasers according to the light source. Due to the narrow wavelength distribution range and low attenuation rate of the laser, the brightness of the laser smart projector is significantly higher than that of the LED smart projector, and the resistance to the environment is stronger.
Wu Jinyi, an analyst at the Toubao Research Institute, said, “Laser projectors are more applicable than projectors using traditional LED light sources due to the high saturation, high brightness, and long service life of laser light sources.”
A person from Guangfeng Technology Co., Ltd. told the Financial Associated Press that compared with the traditional light source projector of the same volume, the brightness of the laser projector is generally 2-5 times that of the traditional light source. In addition, in the camping scene, the laser projector is 30%-50% smaller than the traditional light source projector of the same brightness, compact and portable, and can be carried with you when you go out, reducing the transportation burden of campers.
Since the beginning of this year, the camping economy has continued to heat up, which has further boosted the demand for convenient projection for outdoor camping, but the projection usage scenarios are also subject to device battery life and ambient light.
“In terms of brightness, under natural light conditions during the day, only projectors with a brightness of more than 3000 lumens can meet the viewing needs. Most of the projectors on the market that meet this brightness condition are laser projectors, and the price is higher than that of projectors using LED light sources.” Wu Jinyi pointed out.
Due to the high cost of laser light machines, the price of laser projectors is generally above 4,000 yuan, but the Dangbei ultra-short-focus laser projector U1, which was recently unveiled, is priced at 3,799 yuan and is known as the “flat version of laser TV”. With the maturity and popularization of technology, the price of commercially available laser projectors may further drop in the future.
Jiang Long, deputy general manager of the Vidda business unit of Hisense Video, said that the biggest advantages of laser projectors are brightness and color, especially full-color laser projectors, whose color gamut can reach 107% BT2020. It restores the original colors of the film well.
From the perspective of commercially available laser projectors, the product is equipped with Type-C, USB, HDMI and other interfaces, supporting external charging equipment to meet outdoor battery life; it is more advanced in configuration, in addition to having a large-screen operating system, far-field voice control, In addition to omnidirectional automatic correction, support for access to smart home ecology and other functions, optimization and upgrades have been made in terms of projection ratio, brightness, processor computing power, audio power, volume and weight, and sound and image quality enhancement. It is understood that Epson will soon launch laser native 4K medium and telephoto projection.
At the time of the double 11 pre-sale, projector brands released new products to help heat the laser projection market, and the Fengmi S5 laser projector released in September this year was eye-catching in this double 11 promotion. On an e-commerce platform The Fengmi S5 sold in the Fengmi flagship store has an official historical low price of 2,799 yuan, and it currently shows that more than 3,000 orders have been booked.
The Capital Securities Research Report pointed out that with the iterative upgrade of light source technology and the increase in consumer demand for lasers, the penetration rate of laser projection in home smart projection is increasing, and the penetration rate of laser projection has increased from 2.0% to 3.4% since 2021.
The industry chain is expected to benefit
With the sharp increase in demand for laser projection products, the industry chain has attracted more and more companies to enter the market.
Almost all C-side projector manufacturers have launched laser projection products. In Q3, the top three laser projection brands in terms of market sales are Fengmi, a subsidiary of Appotronics, Vidda, and Dangbei, a subsidiary of Hisense Video. Among them, Fengmi and Dangbei have a combined share of 83%.
Fengmi has always been a representative manufacturer of laser projectors. In the first half of the year, laser projectors accounted for more than 70% of Appotronics’ revenue, and the gross profit margin was as high as 25.08%.
In terms of C-side projection products, the company will mainly rely on original laser core technology and core devices to popularize the emerging product of laser projectors to more consumers. At the same time, in the future, we will focus on technological innovation, scenario innovation, experience optimization, and supply optimization.
In addition, Vidda also told reporters that it “focuses on full-color laser projection.” Vidda is the work of Hisense Video’s crossover projector. The Vidda C1, which uses full-color laser projection technology, was launched in the first half of this year and attracted much market attention.
In the upstream manufacturing of laser projectors, it is reported that the cost-intensive links include laser light sources, light processing chips, lenses, etc., of which many A-share manufacturers are already present.
In terms of light sources, Appotronics currently has an obvious first-mover advantage. According to Aowei Cloud Network, 2020H1 ALPD technology accounts for 82% of home laser projection.
In terms of optical processing chips, the more mainstream DLP chips currently rely heavily on American TI. However, in terms of the latest LCoS chips, domestic company Huixinchen already has the whole process capability of LCoS R&D, design, packaging and testing to optical modules.
In terms of lenses, the laser projection lenses currently on the market basically rely on Japanese companies. However, United Optoelectronics has recently mass-produced ultra-short-focus lenses. The company also stated at a recent exchange meeting that the revenue of laser projection products in the third quarterly report increased by 299.01% year-on-year.
In addition, there are many companies whose laser display products are still in the early stage. A person from the Securities Department of Ruifeng Optoelectronics told the Financial Associated Press that due to the surge in demand in the future, laser display will be one direction of the company in the future. At present, the company is in contact with customers and has not yet produced a considerable increase in mass shipments.
(Editor: Cao Jingchen)