Samsung as a predominant display products vendor in India cannot just be ignored at any point of time. To sustain the tag of leader, the company has a comprehensive programme, which covers the entire plethora of activities, including R&D, manufacturing, marketing, support, incentivization, brand building, etc. Therefore, out of the five million-plus monitors market in India, Samsung accounts for one-third units. In the LCD monitors segment also, the company enjoys the similar pie with 40 per cent. Recently, VARIndia has had an interaction with Subrotah Biswas, Deputy General Manager – IT Products, Samsung India, on the same topic.
Samsung has a range of 15 LCD monitor models in between 15” to 63” with a price range of Rs.8,500 to Rs.4,65,000.
Asked about the secret of success, Subrotah attributes it to the innovative and breakthrough technology products coupled with innovative and aggressive consumer schemes.
The company has launched “Vivaldi” and”“Haydn” series last year. The schemes have also encouraged consumers to upgrade from CDT Monitors to 15” and 17” LCD Monitors.
Some of the Samsung monitors stand out on account of their technology edge, form factor, superior quality and value-for-money pricing. For example, some of the key features of the”“Haydn” series include an 8ms response time, high contrast ratio and brightness, an ultra-narrow bezel and slim design, MagicColour feature with colour enhancement chip for rich and vivid picture; MagicTune feature – colour calibration for accurate colour images, six viewing modes for optimum display – Text, Internet, Sports, Movie, Game and Custom Mode with the Magic Bright2 feature. The VESA 75mm compatible wall mounting maximizes the installation convenience.
Available in 17” screen size, the stylish “Vivaldi” series of TFT LCD Monitors with buttonless design comes with the world’s best contrast ratio, 1500:1 for perfect image colour; Fast response time of 6 ms, Ultra viewing angle 1780/1780 and a Triple Hinge Magic Stand for the most flexible control and the world’s best height adjustment 170mm (134mm).
All the products are sold through 300 Star channel partners and all the distributors, including Redington, Savex, eSys, Ingram Micro and Neoteric are engaged in selling this range of products.
As is well known, Samsung India partners are very energetic and active. Subrotah maintains,’“All our partners are strongly motivated to sell our LCD Monitors. This happens because of our strong, feature-rich, advanced product lineup. Along with this, we emphasize on educating channel partners on the superior product features.”
Secondly, the company invests in its marketing activities in the direction of creating a strong consumer pull for the products and strives to help consumers upgrade to LCD Monitors.
In the year 2006, the company recorded a 200-per cent growth in its LCD volumes, by selling 300,000 LCD Monitors.
For the year 2007, the company plans to introduce 5–6 new LCD Monitor models in the screen sizes between 17” and 22” in the Indian market. The new models will be differentiated from the current Samsung lineup both in terms of the design and features. Two of the new models that we will be introducing will be compatible for Windows Vista Software to be released soon.
The new models will have improved the response time and will command a premium of around 10 per cent over the existing Samsung LCD Monitors.
Finally…
Today, Samsung India has a market share of around 40 per cent in the LCD Monitor category in India and the expectation is to capture a market share of 50 per cent by the end of this year.
