Booming flat TVs buck the trend

NEW DELHI: While the television industry is struggling to show double digit growth, Flat TVs are slated to grow at nearly 200 per cent this year. The 1.4 lakh sales figure of last year is expected to cross the 4-lakh mark.
The latest ORG-GFK figures put the flat TV sales for April-August at over 1.6 lakh. Majority of sales are expected to happen in the last quarter, thanks to the festival season.
From the troika of Sony, Samsung and LG who initially entered and pushed the category, a number of players like Sansui, Akai, Onida, Videocon and Panasonic subsequently entered the segment, growing the numbers.
Flat TVs’ advantages are life-like picture quality and better colour resolution. With companies introducing smaller models at reasonable prices, Flat TVs have started to eat into the market of conventional TVs. The latteris still ahead with sales at 6 million.
Sony is leading with a 44.6 per cent share. Samsung follows at 17.7 per cent and LG is third at 9.8 per cent. Sony expects Flat TV sales of 2.75 lakh units this year, says Teruo Ishii, MD.
And, Samsung has been adding to its Plano range of flat and projection TVs. Says R Zutshi, V-P: “We expect our flat TV contribution to grow to 12 per cent of our total CTV sales volume this year.�
LG’s share, according to ORG-GFK, declined from 14.7 per cent to 9.8 per cent in April-August. The company disagrees, claiming a sale of 8,000 flat TVs a month, and aiming at 25 per cent share.