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New Delhi
March 28th, 2008
Price drops are not a new phenomenon in the IT industry. Every electronic
gadget or any consumer commodity undergoes this phase. This time around, it is
projector prices that are witnessing a drop.
But in the backdrop of the recent prince hike of other products as reported
on DQ Channels Solutions Alert newsletter recently, the projector business is
bucking the trend. And surprisingly, though the price of the projectors has gone
down, it does not indicate that the business has slowed down as well. In fact,
feature-packed projectors have become the basic necessity in every business
organization.
All major players like Epson, Sony, NEC, BenQ, Sanyo, Panasonic, Canon, etc
are bringing the prices of their projectors down. Said Jaswinder Singh Mann,
Business Head-Display Products, Panasonic Asia Pacific, "Since more players
are entering this space, there is a stiff competition due to which the price
drop is obvious. This is also because the demand for LCD projectors and home
theatre systems is really growing."
Sharing a similar view is Abhimanyu Gupta, Director, Actis Technologies.
"With respect to the market size, too many brands are available in the
market. Additionally, innovations in technology keep happening every other
day," he said.
Seeing the tremendous growth in this business, Vinod Jain of Chennai-based
Computer Planet has started dealing in LCD projectors this year. "We have
also been roped in with market leading brands like Hitachi, Toshiba and
Viewsonic for the same. CRT monitors' segment has almost reached its saturation
point, and so we have shifted our focus more on the TFT monitors, which is still
in the growth phase," he informed.
The market view
Demand of projectors has increased by 25 percent as compared to last year.
Almost every vendor decreased its prices in the said segment by approx 15 to 18
percent, except few who are maintaining prices with marginal decrease in prices
to maintain quality products.
In terms of volume, the projector market is growing at 20-25 percent
annually, although the prices have been falling by 15 percent. The APAC market
for projectors continues to see robust growth, especially as systems continue to
become more affordable. As projectors have entered the mainstream, prices on
every technology, from plasma and LCD monitors to front and rear projectors have
come down. This has seen an increase in the sales volumes of the projectors.
VP Sajeevan, Assistant Director, Canon predicted that vast exposure and
product awareness will prove to be driving factors in projector segment within
India. With government focusing on e-governance projects and expectation of a
further increase in education sector, investment will surely fuel further
growth.
Driving growth
With prices of projectors having dropped by over 50 percent over the last
three years, many corporate buyers are today opting for more than one projector
for their organization. The projector market is a burgeoning space that has
observed a growth in demand and promises an increase too.
Consumers are looking for newer and improved ways of entertainment. The home
projectors are buoyant with the home cinema segment on a high. Moreover, digital
projectors are used as a modern day communication tool, and are making its
presence felt in various thriving sectors:
Education: With many classrooms going digital, the GDP contribution to
education is expected to double.
BPOs: Given the large number of manpower being recruited by call
centers, projectors have become an indispensable tool for their training needs.
A 1,000-seater call center would require anywhere between 15 to 30 projectors,
as an instructional tool for training new employees.
IT and ITeS: This industry is witnessing a tremendous growth. Also,
much of the growth comes from sales of multimedia projectors to households. In
India, television and cinema are the major sources of entertainment, and
multimedia projectors are being used there too, to enhance the quality and size
of the picture. Government, defense, healthcare, home segment SMBs, and
hospitality are other sectors from where demand of projectors is coming. Each of
these segments is showing promises to grow in a big way. Page(s) 1 2
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