By Sharmee Roy
Pune-based DSK Digital has tied up with Funtoro, an affiliate of MSI, as its national distributor for car entertainment systems. To be co-branded as DSK-Funtoro, these systems will be available in India from January.
Milind Kshirsagar, Managing Director, DSK Digital said, “These are unique systems with playback of movies, music, photos, road navigation and DTV. At present the tie-up is for India, but there are plans to jointly market and distribute the products with MSI in other countries as well.”
Available in three versions—standard, professional and server—DSK plans to sell 50,000 units in the first year itself. “The standard version supports two LCD displays, the professional one can support up to six, and the server version can be used in a bus as it supports up to 50 display screens which play content on demand for each user,” he explained. The entry-level model is likely to be priced at Rs 80,000. However, as volumes build up, the prices could come down substantially, according to Kshirsagar.
The company plans to push these products through car manufacturers and auto distribution companies. “We are also open to selling them through IT channels. We displayed the product at a recent IT fair, and were flooded with channel inquiries,” he added.
Talking about its IT business, Kshirsagar said that during the last quarter the company went in for a restructuring. “We have the IT distribution division now, and we have recently signed up with Singapore-based Yuraku to sell their LCD monitors. We have also floated an IT services division which will act as a country-wide ASP for third-party brands.”
Part of the D S Kulkarni Group, DSK Digital was formed last year as a joint venture company with Chinese vendor TCL, with plans to start local manufacturing of the latter’s IT and consumer products. However, the joint venture was called off mid-way. “We started as DSK Worldman, but for some reason the partnership with TCL didn’t work out. From October we have revitalized our business with a new name, DSK Digital, and with a new business plan and partnerships we will ramp up our operations in 2009,” said Kshirsagar. |