The Bigger Picture About Projectors

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.

he 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.

With the market for projects witnessing a YoY growth, competition has significantly grown

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.

Innovation is the 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 multi-functional.

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. 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. 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.

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.

Rachna Gupta

rachnagu@cybermedia.co.in