There s a reason why 4K televisions are becoming more prominent in your local electronics store: Manufacturers are shipping a lot more of them.
TV makers shipped more of the ultra-high resolution sets in the second quarter of this year than they shipped in all of 2013, according to new research from NPD DisplaySearch. The second quarter is the period when TV manufacturers typically send to retailers their models that are new for the year.
In the period between April 1 and June 30, TV makers shipped 2.1 million 4K sets. By contrast, they shipped just 1.6 million 4K TVs in all of 2013.
Graphic courtesy of NPD DisplaySearch.
What s more, the 4K TVs are being distributed much more broadly. Last year, about 80 percent of these ultra-high definition TVs ended up in China. In the second quarter this year, about 60 percent of 4K TV shipments went to China, with nearly 10 percent heading to North America.
4K TVs get their name from the fact that their screens are comprised of nearly 4,000 columns of pixels, compared with about 2,000 for a regular high-definition set. Altogether, they have 4 times the resolution of HD TVs.
As I wrote in my column this week, prices have plunged recently on 4K TVs such that at some sizes, they are priced about the same as high-end HD sets. However, despite falling prices and greater supply, ultra-high definition television face a challenge, because there s little native 4K content for consumers to watch.
Photo by David Becker/Getty Images.
