Retail for Monitors
Sanjoy Bhattacharya
IT Head
LG India
The monitor segment has witnessed an unprecedented growth in the last couple of quarters. This segment has seen a steady growth as education, BPO, gaming and government sectors have been increasing their investments in the IT hardware sector. So, the vendors are trying to offer the best of retail options to reach the consumers.
The monitor market can be divided into two parts- the assembled market and the assembled plus branded market. “The market size of the assembled plus branded market is 6.5 million units, whereas that of the assembled market is 3 million units,” opines Sanjoy Bhattacharya, IT Head, LG India.
With the increasing demand of LED and 3D advanced technologies, the overall monitor market saw a demand growth during the last fiscal. Demand for 3D monitors has seen a growth during the last year, but the market is still in a nascent stage and content development as well as technological innovation is required.
Largest Selling Monitors in the Indian Market
LED is clearly the next big technology change that is happening in the monitor industry. With more and more customers being aware of power saving that this brings, LED is fast becoming the standard for monitors. "LED monitor shipments have surpassed their LCD shipments which today account for just 20-30 per cent of their total shipments. In addition, they offer 20-30 per cent better power saving compared to LCD monitors, and are far more reliable. According to an IDC Report, the India PC market shipments for Q1 2012 (January to March) alone stood at 9.5 lakh units,” says Shishir Singh, Director - Product Marketing, CSMB, Dell India.
Sanjoy of LG explains that the display market is growing at a commendable rate, with new players entering the field. LED monitors are slowly overtaking their LCD counterparts because of their slim ranges. Also, companies are also taking a whole lot of interest in the 3D monitor market. All in all, new trends and increasing demand are boosting up the display market.
Undoubtedly, LED technology is the latest attraction for the consumers now. The power-saving feature and backlit technology are attracting the consumers. “The market size during the last financial year stood at 49.51 billion with a lot of focus on introduction of larger screens by most of the vendors. 18.5” continued to be the biggest driver as per the screen size, while 22”, 23” and 24” also managed to get good foothold in the Indian market,” says, Saurabh Grover, Director – Monitor Business, AOC. He further throws light on the fact that, though the entry-level size like 15.6” and 18.5” provides biggest contribution to the monitor market, but slowly the customer’s interest for bigger sizes like above 20” is growing. With the latest increasing number of 3D content, the demand for 3D monitors is increasing. Full HD monitors and 3D monitors are what customer is likely to adapt in the coming time.
Shishir Singh Director-Product Marketing,CSMB Dell India | Saji Kumar Director-Product Management Acer India | Saurabh Grover Director-Monitor Business AOC |
Which Retailing Works for Monitors
Retailing for monitors is not a one-shoe-fits-all trick. It largely depends on the type of the monitors.
Saji Kumar, Director – Product Management, Acer India, says "Acer is a 100% partner- oriented organization. We have received tremendous support from all our partners to become the top player in this segment. VARs are definitely the maximum contributors to our overall sale of monitors. Moreover, we have noticed that the consumer purchase pattern of monitors at LFR outlets is very minimal. We have not faced any challenge in addressing the retail format of our business."
Shishir of Dell India opines that product positioning in LFRs and VARs is different. VAR’s is a volume business where small and mid screen size plays a major role, whereas in LFRs the focus is on high-end TFTs.
Saurabh of AOC asserts that selling through Channel has been most beneficial for them.
Online Retail for Monitors
With India being the fastest e-commerce market in the world, it is no surprise that the sale of TFT products has also started online. However, Saji Kumar expresses that e-retailing is still at a nascent stage in India. Acer too has started exploring this avenue and they expect the numbers to grow gradually over a period of time.
Shishir of Dell opines, "We are always evaluating avenues for customers to be able to purchase Dell products through multiple routes which are best suited to them. Currently, we are evaluating whether customers find the purchase of TFTs from online portals as an optimal experience. If we feel that is fast gaining popularity, we will definitely think about it."
Finally…
Certainly with a more than ever technology leap in monitors, the retail platform for the same would also develop with time. For monitors, the positioning also depends on whether it is sold standalone or as bundled PC. However, though high-end monitors are positioned through Exclusive or Multi Brand stores, the entry-level ones are still largely an affair of the channels and VARs.
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