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The Big Picture

author-image
DQI Bureau
New Update

The 'image' on the wall is clear. The digital projector,

from being an obscure boardroom device, has now become mainstream in the

peripherals market. Until a year ago, exorbitant prices had kept the digital

projector market a small niche in the peripherals space. But that's history

now. With price slides in the recent past, the 'affordability' factor has

increased. Today, all leading players have a slew of offerings in the sub Rs 1

lakh category. The home segment has also come into the radar. Agrees AK Harish,

business manager, Projectors, Epson India: "The projector technology has

evolved over the years and, as a result, the picture quality has inreased. At

the same time decline in prices has opened up the market in India."

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Market Dynamics



According to IDC the total market size for digital projectors was 21,152

units for 2004. The top three players were NEC, InFocus, and Epson. In value

terms, digital projectors garnered Rs 237 crore during 2004. In terms of

technology, digital light processing (DLP) constituted 34% and liquid crystal

display (LCD) accounted for the balance 66%. In the DLP space, Toshiba was the

number one player. Among the two major resolutions available, SVGA constituted

47% and XGA 53%. Products in the digital projector market are spread across

three category of lumens: 1000—1500, 1500—2000 and 2000—2500. Weight is

also a key criteria and the market is divided on those lines also. For instance,

the projector weighing 2-3 kg constituted 50% of the total market in 2004. The

typical entry-level prices of DLPs were around Rs 97,000 while LCD projectors

vended at Rs 120,000 during 2004.

According to Sanjit Sinha, senior manager, Hardware Research,

IDC India, "With overall IT spending on a high in India, projectors are

expected to quickly become a part of the IT infrastructure investments in both

the corporate and government segments." Vendors also expect a growing

demand from the education segment. While there exists a huge potential in the

SMB and home segment, the growth rate will be slow given the gradual adoption by

the SMB players. The concept of projector—based home theatre system is still

in its infancy. While ASP declines would be very crucial to address these two

markets, vendors need to look at addressing these segments through a mix of

conventional and unconventional IT distribution channels. Technology innovation,

coupled with enhanced production, would drive down prices, as market and product

differentials gradually start moving away from product features to factors such

as service, ease of purchase, and price.

Vendor Strategies



The digital projector market in India is a highly fragmented one with

estimates pegging it close to 30 players. In terms of market visibility, players

like Epson, NEC, InFocus, Sharp, and Toshiba occupy the top slots. HP's recent

foray into the projector space has also made the market more competitive. HP in

Q2 2005 came out with a slew of digital projectors aimed at various buying

segments. HP's vp and mp series of digital projectors are priced between Rs

75,000 and Rs 190,000.

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HP has come out with value additions like built-in DVD players

and in-built flash memory, which enable users to store presentations and beam

them without the aid of a PC. Says Manu Sharma, country category manager,

Imaging Products, HP India: "We have an innovative range of digital

projectors that come with state-of-the-art mobility and wireless features.

Verticals like education are doing aggressive buying, apart form big corporates.

The traction we are seeing in the projector space is due to the shrinkage of

end-user prices."

Digital Projector Market

2004

Units

21,152

Value

Rs 237 crore

Segment-wise projector consumption

Large enterprise

34%

Government

27%

Home

5%

Others

34%

Market by Technology

DLP

34%

LCD

66%

Source: IDC India

Meanwhile, Epson is also aggressively addressing the market with

its projector offerings. Recently, Epson showcased its proprietary 3-LCD

technology, highlighting its benefits over the DLP technology. The 3-LCD

projectors pass light through LCD panels about the size of a postage stamp and

then use the projector's lens to expand minute details within the images. Thus

the projector is able to reproduce a wide gamut of colors. Says Harish,

"Our latest projector, the Dreamio EMP-TW200H, targeting the home theatre

segment, is yet another model which is doing extremely well. With this

projector, a resolution of 1280x720 is achievable, brightness of 1500 ANSI lumen

and a contrast ratio of 1000:1. The projector uses a 0.7-inch wide LCD panel

with a full 10-bit drive." Epson has also come out with a postcard-sized

mini-projector, using an LED light source and a footprint of 13.8 by 10.3

centimeters. The 500-gram prototype can fit into the palm of a hand.

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On the home side of things, vendors are targeting the upmarket

and techno-savvy professional who is tuned to a digital lifestyle. Says VP

Sajeevan, senior manager marketing, Projectors and Consumables, Canon India,

"Around 5% of   the total population has the

power  of  spending  for high-value visual products atÂ

home.  And this population is the target audience for our home

projectors. This is substantiated by the fact that today, a consumer

can use a Canon projector and connect to television via a

TV-tuner, besides accessing the DVD, digital camera, and laptop. This makes

usage easy and hassle free."

Clearly, digital projectors have outgrown their corporate-only

image and their volumes are increasing. Analysts see a buoyant growth path for

the digital projectors in the days ahead and, according to IDC estimates, the

digital projector market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 27% during the next

four years. While the bigger market right now is LCD, in time DLP based digital

projectors will gain ground. At the large enterprise level, the crash in end

user price points will enable this segment to go for additional projectors,

equipping all conference rooms with a projector. SMBs, which mostly rented out

projectors on demand basis, now own their projectors, in the bargain getting

more RoI as a rented projector come at over Rs 2k per hour.

As Epson's Harish sums it up, "The market in India will

continue to grow rapidly. Data projectors will become default in every office

conference room. Projectors will increasingly enter the home as a preferred

cinema viewing experience. Prices will come down further and picture quality

will get better even as projectors get smaller."

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Shrikanth G

in Chennai

Projector Techs-Demystified

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD): Projectors based on the LCD

technology have three LCD glass panels for red, green and blue-commonly

referred to as RGB. The image is beamed onto the screen as light passes through

each of these panels.

Digital Light Processing (DLP): Different from LCD, the

DLP-based projectors use a high reflective surface composed of numerous micro

mirrors on the DLP chip with each mirror taking up a single pixel. There is a

lot of inbuilt intelligence embedded on DLP projectors as the color is managed

through a spinning wheel between the chip and the lens that determine the colors

hitting the mirror surface.

Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS): Vendors like JVC and

Hitachi having already come out with LCOS based products. Experts define the

technology as a hybrid between LCD and DLP. LCOS combines reflective technology

as well as LCD, by applying liquid crystals on the reflective mirror. As light

passes, the liquid crystals open and close to create the image.

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