Vineet Mahajan
Head-Display Products,
Panasonic India Pvt Ltd
Vineet Mahajan, Head-Display Products, Panasonic India Pvt Ltd, shares with digitalLEARNING his views on the nitty-gritty’s of projector market in India
Tell us about the models that you have launched.
This year, Panasonic launched 28 new models, so now our total number of models is 53. We launched specific models for the price sensitive market, short throw and Ultra short throw catering to education vertical. We also launched 9 new models in between 6000 lumens to 20,000 lumens catering to E-cinema, large venue and Digital signage market. The portfolio of 53 models is capable enough to satisfy the dynamic needs of the market ranging from 2200 Lumens to 20000 Lumens. From user-inspired design to advanced engineering, innovation is what sets Panasonic projectors apart from the competition. We have focus on education, government, event management, auditoriums, cinema, home cinema and corporate verticals.
Provide us with your views on the factors that are driving the projectors market in India.
The demand for projectors is on a rising curve due to strong buying in education, government, Cinema, IT/ITES segments, corporate etc. On technology front, both LCD and DLP projectors are in demand, and gradually the market witnesses a trend in LED Lamp technology. With IT infrastructure spending becoming essential part of every business budget, projectors are on their way to becoming integral to any organisation. With the advent of growing technologies, education today has moved out of the realm of conventional methods of teaching to a smarter and digitised form of imparting knowledge to give real life experience of learning. Education has clearly emerged as the major sector for projectors. It contributes to more than 30 percent approximately of the total projector market in India.
What are the emerging technologies in this segment?
The LED lamp based projectors are getting in fashion nowadays, but price will be a challenge. In the current scenario we don’t see drastic emergence of Pico projectors. However, we believe it will witness high demand in years to come. Further, these projectors have the capability to overcome screen size limitations that exist in mobile electronics devices. Hence, they are capable of projecting large images, irrespective of their size. Thus, the usage of such projectors is best suited in an environment with small space.
What are the opportunities and challenges in the Projector market?
The opportunities are immense as more and more organisations in India are upgrading their IT infra structure. Moreover, with the rapid increase in the demand for video-conferencing facility, the requirement for large display /projector is a must. Market is and will witness a high demand of projectors from Education and government segments. Only challenge can be that the demand of a projector can be substituted by LCD / Plasma Displays. Channel partners have the liberty of selling both forms of displays either Projector or FPD (Flat Panel display (LCD / Plasma).
What kind of growth are you expecting in the projector market in India?
Panasonic has been in the projector market for last 35 years. The market size for projectors in India in 2011 was around 240,000 units and it is likely to cross 275,000 units in 2012. The Indian projector market is expected to grow by 18 percent annually in the next three years from its current level in 2012. Panasonic has always been the leader in innovative technologies and aims at providing its customers nothing but the best. The year 2012 witnessed a huge jump in the sales of Panasonic range of projectors. With Sanyo projectors coming under the Panasonic Brand name, we witnessed a jump of 180 percent versus last year in the same month. Sanyo brand of projectors was withdrawn on April’2012.
Secondly, with the shift for better viewing experience by the user’s third dimension (3D) technology in projectors is catching up very fast in India. These projectors actually aim at bringing pictures which are life-like and might just be conned into thinking that the images of people that on the screen are actually real.