A Smart TV With the Sound Output of 30 Watts in 32 Inches is Made in India 70-80% Smart TVs are being purchased for watching normal content.
By Nidhi Singh
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The Television still remains to be a major mass medium of entertainment for everyone in our country. The one thing which has changed over the years is the screen size of the television which has gotten both bigger and smaller.
With technology advancements growing rapidly, many big companies are adding few innovations to old TV models and naming it Smart TV for better brand appeal. Today major TV manufacturers have their own smart TV models that feature different sets of inbuilt services and apps.
Avneet Singh Marwah, Director and CEO of Super PlastronicsPvt Ltd (SPPL), a Kodak brand licensee shared the role of Smart TV developing the digital ecosystem in India.
70-80% Smart TV Being Purchased For Watching Normal Content
"Smart TVs have an important role to play in the digital ecosystem by means of enabling technology in every household. At present, 70-80% of Smart TVs being purchased are used for watching normal content, however, with the capability of smart televisions now being known to consumers, the user is able to switch between a smartphone and a TV easily," Marwah explained.
Just like a smartphone, a smart TV can be connected to the internet to easily stream media services and inbuilt apps.In smart TV, the operating system is preloaded or is available through the set-top box.
Marwah feels that by 2022, the TV industry will have a whole new array of technology, in terms of research based technology like foldable television's, thinner screens, technologies surpassing 4K(we already see 8K in the market) and as per industry research, more than 55% of the world will replace their LED TV with 4k technology.
This is good news in terms of how fast consumers want to change their television, wherein past decades the average turnaround time for televisions was around 8-10 years according to him.
SPPL Has Its Own R&D Center To Study Consumer Behavior In India
Innovation in TV technology has made some of the big brands compete with each other in terms of educating consumers about the new functionalities. Noida- based SPPL has its own Research & Development (R&D) center, where the company studies consumer behavior in India and tries innovating their products for the consumers.
"One of our recent developments was a user-friendly smart interface, customized for the Indian consumer. The company plans to introduce a television with a sound-output of 30-watts in a 32-inch television model, one of the highest available in the segment, in India to eliminate the need for external speakers completely," said Marwah.
He further shared that the company will be reinvesting more INR 800 crore in the next 5 years towards increasing their production unit sizes, distribution network, and R&D. Currently, SPPL has 3 plants in India located in Noida, Una and Jammu and is currently exploring the market in Andhra Pradesh for a new production unit.
Indian Customer Will Not Blindly Follow A Brand Name Anymore
Many major brands in the TV segment still continue to face stiff competition from Chinese and Japanese players but Marwah feels the Indian customer has become more price conscious and will not blindly follow a brand name anymore.
"Consumers are willing to bet on new brand names like ours since we offer the same technology at 1/3rd the prices. Our strategy is to provide value for money products and continuously develop our customer support, so that we are always able to offer a complete package to the customer," he said.
Is a Marriage With e-commerce Websites on the Cards?
Marwah does not sound very interested. "We are already doing a good amount of business in the e-commerce sector, where Flipkart is our biggest partner currently. We have some of the exclusives models with Flipkart and our target is to achieve a 20% online market share by the end of 2018."
According to a TechSci Research report, the television market in India is anticipated to cross US$ 9 Billion by the end of 2021. In recent years, the Indian television market has witnessed drastic transformations, with consumer preference changing from CRT TVs to Smart TVs. It would be interesting to see how this Made in India brand will beat competition from major electronics majors in the smart TV market.
