Projector prices slide down

Rachna Gupta

New Delhi

26th February 2008

Projectors prices are witnessing a drop. There is nothing new in that as
every electronic gadget or any consumer commodity undergoes this phase.

But in the backdrop of the recent prince hike of other products as reported
on DQ Channels Solutions Alert 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 Asia Pacific
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. “In 2007, Canon India registered approx 70 percent growth in the
projector business, which was higher than the market growth. We bagged the world's
biggest order for 350 high-end projectors. Though it's too early to comment on
anything specific on this year's trend, the early indications are very
encouraging,” he informed. With government focusing on e-governance projects
and expectation of a further increase in education sector, investment will
surely fuel further growth.

“The projectors do have a very bright future and we foresee a situation
that every home would have a projector and use it as a mini theatre. I feel that
the projectors would contribute almost 20-30 percent to our company's revenue
by the end of this year,” Jain said.

In demand! Where from?

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 are
showing promises to grow in a big way.

Innovation is key Manufacturers are beginning to truly address and understand
the needs of specific industries, which have motivated them to design projectors
around what are perceived to be desired attributes, thereby driving adoption.
Constant innovation happens in the projector display technologies. Apart from
getting sleeker, lighter and aesthetically more refined, the projectors are
getting more and more user-friendly and multifunctional.

For instance, some of latest projectors of Actis Technologies are Wi-Fi
enabled, have network monitoring capabilities, possess a USB drive so that
presentations can be made directly using that port, and also have a longer lamp
life.

“The global projection technology is going through an exciting time. New
players are entering the market, each touting the specific performance
advantages provided by their much-vaunted products. We are giving tough
competition to our competitors by coming up with the latest-in-market and
innovative technologies,” Gupta said.

Mann informed, “Panasonic has introduced high-performance three-chip DLP-based
projector with astounding brightness of 10,000 lumens, extremely high 5,000:1
contrast ratio and fully HD compatible, native 1,920x1,080 resolution.”

To achieve both brightness and contrast, Canon has developed a new optical
system called 'aspectual illumination system' (AISYS). Elaborating about
this technology, Sajeevan said, “This system enables a remarkably compact body
of the projectors with high image quality. Canon employs cylindrical lenses to
develop the AISYS optical system. AISYS independently controls the vertical and
horizontal components of light from the light source.”

Advantages over other displays With so many high-end innovative features,
there is no denying that the power of a projector relies significantly on the
quality of its lens. Speaking on the advantages of LCD projectors over other
displays, Sanjeevan said, “In addition to the capacity to resize pictures to
match screens in different environments, LCD projectors are in a league apart
from PC monitors and TV sets in the sheer size of the image they can project.”
Its ability to focus the attention of large groups of viewers makes them
powerful tools for persuasive presentations. And projectors are more versatile,
fitting in nearly anywhere at home or work. Still, some discerning users seeking
exceptional picture quality have been unsatisfied with the 'rough' images
produced by LCD projectors.

Yet another advantage is the price factor. In the home segment, the price
benefit of owing a home theatre with projector vis-à-vis a home theatre system
with LCD of 120 inch is huge. While the LCD costs anywhere above Rs 30 lakh, the
projector can be owned at less than Rs 1 lakh also.

Competition Today, on the one hand, along with the more established players,
new entrants are competing for a strong foothold of the market by offering
products customized for specific market segments. On the other hand, consumers
show a preference for brighter and lighter projectors, portability and clarity
rules the market.

Thus, the competition in this segment is very fierce due to many
world-leading brands available. With the market for projectors witnessing a YoY
growth, competition has significantly grown.

“On the technology front, the market is moving from XGA to SXGA, where
Canon is already a strong player. The resulting competition is fuelling growth
of the entire market segment,” Sajeevan said.

The growing need for business presentations and the boom in the home
entertainment industry with innovative entertainment options propelled in part
due to socio-cultural changes are some of the important reasons behind fuelling
growth of the projectors' market.

Manufacturers are also coming up with innovative features to meet the needs
of the consumer. All these factors have resulted in the price drop in the
projectors. Consequently, a tremendous growth is being witnessed in projectors
biz. Future will see more innovative and high-end projectors, say the experts.