By Dhaval Valia
Pure-play display company, ViewSonic is all geared to make an entry into consumer electronics segment and expand its PC portfolio. The company has converted its India liaison office to a subsidiary and is looking at realigning its distribution strategy.
Outlining the company’s new vision and strategy, Gautam Ghosh, Country Manager, ViewSonic India said, “We want to be present in display-centric digital entertainment and personal computing products market, spanning display sizes of 3-inch to 300-inch. This would include categories ranging from mobile phones to large outdoor displays and even TVs, media players, desktops and notebooks, apart from the legacy PC display (PCD).”
The company has already launched its computing range, which includes notebooks, netbooks, AIOs and mini PCs. It is now in the process of rolling out digital gadgets like media players, personal movie devices and digital photo frames, and may even get into the TV market.
The company plans to have different distribution models for new product categories. “For computing devices, we are on the verge of signing up IT partners in all four regions. As for consumer products, we are in talks with a non-IT national distributor. These electronic devices will be positioned at specialty chains like Vijay Sales and Croma,” he informed.
According to Ghosh, the USP of its new product portfolio will clearly be affordability and time-to-market. “We were the first company to launch All-in-One PCs in India, before major PC OEMs.”
ViewSonic expects its PCDs and new products to contribute equally to its revenues by end of 2010.
On the PCD front, the company recently launched a 15-inch and a 19-inch LED monitor, priced Rs 6,500 and Rs 8,500 respectively.
“Our aim is to initiate and lead the transformation to the greener LED option. Presently, the price gap between LCD and LED is less than 20 percent. This will further narrow as economies of scale build up.
In 2010, we believe that LED display will capture 50 percent market share globally—across all categories including mobiles, TVs and PCD,” opined Ghosh.
In order to increase its penetration in upcountry locations, Ghosh hinted at revamping the PCD distribution.
“Presently, we have three distributors—Redington, Global Infonet and Roop Technologies. We are looking at either replacing or adding two distributors whose sole focus would be on achieving penetration in the smaller cities.” Ghosh also admitted that the company was in talks with Compuage—its erstwhile distributor. |