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With new models, latest features, and aggressive price-points, several TV brands await the festival season to cash in on the growing demand for upgrades.
Brands such as TCL, Kodak, Samsung, Thomson, and BPL are looking to tap the opportunity.
Going online
iFFalcon, the internet brand of global giant TCL, intends to launch what it claims is the “world’s first” 32-inch, HD-ready, Google-certified, Android TV. Exclusively partnering Flipkart, iFFalcon will launch the model by September-end.
“With the iFFalcon 32 F2A TV, which is customised for India, we are addressing a growing consumer demand for Smart TVs, which constitutes 25 per cent of the Indian TV market, up from 12 per cent two years ago. It will be more competitively priced than a basic smart TV and will offer the latest Android 8.0 Oreo and AI voice assistance,” said Sebastian Dong, Marketing Head, iFFalcon India.
Dong told BusinessLine that he hopes to convert buyers of the 32-inch basic TV to smart TV with the launch. “We are also ready to launch a 40-and a 49-inch 4K full-HD resolution TVs, followed by 55/65/75-inch TVs, providing customers with a full range of Google-certified Android TVs,” added Dong. He said iFFalcon is targeting 1 per cent market share of the total TV market by the end of the season, and 5 per cent by March 2019.
Top end models
BPL, which continues to enjoy high brand recall despite being forced out of the market between 2006 and 2016, is gearing up to launch two top-end 4K UHD Android TV models: A 49-inch variant and a 55-inch model, priced between ₹40,000 and50,000. BPL will sell the models exclusively on Amazon. It also intends to phase out its 50-inch and 55-inch basic TVs. “Nearly 25 per cent of the demand for BPL TVs comes from upcountry towns like Tonk and Madanapalli, and 25 per cent from Tier-2 and -3 towns. We expect to sell 65,000 units during this season compared to 45,000 units in the last, driven by a demand for 32-inch basic and smart TVs from across the country,” said Manmohan Ganesh, COO, BPL Ltd.
Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), the exclusive brand licensee of Thomson and Kodak TVs in India which also retails home-grown brands SVL, Suntek, Crown, and Suzikon through a pan-India network of multi-brand stores and 350 service centres, aims to capture 6-7 per cent of the TV market in India in 2019-20, up from the current 3 per cent.
The company is focused on launching new Kodak smart TV models (43-inch 4K UHD with HDR) along with non-smart TVs from 24-inch to 50-inch at prices between ₹7,999 and ₹39,999.
Kodak and Thomson TVs also sell online on Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm. Catering to the rising demand for large screens, Samsung launched the world’s first ‘LED for Home’ on Tuesday. The TVs are priced between ₹1 crore and ₹3.5 crore with screen sizes starting from 110-inch FHD to 260-inch UHD.
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