Digital projector sales up 30 percent: Report

Shipments of digital projectors in the country grew 30 percent to nearly 2.54 lakh units in 2012 over the previous year, a report by CyberMedia Research (CMR) on Tuesday said.

Education sector continued to be the biggest driver of digital projector sales (accounting for 40 percent of shipments in 2012), followed by mid-size and small business segments, CMR said in its India Half Yearly Digital Projector Market Review.

"India's education sector is moving towards the digital age. Educational system integrators are booming in India and helping to cater to the growing requirement of audio-visual equipment," CMR Lead Analyst InfoTech Practice Sumanta Mukherjee said.

The India digital projector market in the corporate segment was traditionally dominated by large businesses.

"However, the market has slowly witnessed a shift towards mid-size and small business segments, particularly after the 2008 global economic slowdown. Increased penetration of mobile computing devices like notebook PCs in the SMB sector has also contributed to new use cases emerging for projectors," Mukherjee said.

The home/small office home office (SOHO) segment also holds potential for uptake of digital projectors, especially with the launch of models that support features like HD, short-throw, 3D, Wi-Fi etc.

"Vendors like Epson, BenQ, Panasonic and others hope to encash this opportunity. However, the prevailing low consumer sentiments are acting as a barrier to growth," Mukherjee said.

BenQ dislodged 2011 leader InFocus from its top position with 18 percent share, followed by Epson with 16 percent and Hitachi with 12 percent share in unit shipment terms.

InFocus, witnessing channel and top management restructuring during 2012, lost share and slipped to fifth position in terms of unit shipments.

Panasonic, with nine percent share jumped to fourth spot in 2013 from number 8 in 2011.

In revenue terms, the India market touched Rs. 690 crore in 2012, witnessing a growth of 23 percent over the previous year. However, the average sales value (ASV) of digital projectors in the country declined by five percent over 2011.

CMR said the market continued its shift towards LCD due to better quality of projection and lower power consumption as well as less heat generation as compared to DLP.

The proportion of shipments for DLP projectors declined to 54 percent in 2012 as against 58 percent in 2011.