Samsung sees two-fold growth in panel TV sales this year

Digital technology major, Samsung Electronics, is eying a two-fold growth in panel TV sales in 2009 “primarily driven by the buoyant demand for slim and ultra-slim models,” said Ravinder Zutshi, deputy managing director of Samsung India.

“The company, which has so far introduced 50 TV models in the country – 18 in panel and 32 in flat categories – is shifting its focus to slim and ultra-slim models as the market is now strong and positive towards panel TVs,” Zutshi told Business Standard.

Samsung has set a target to sell 600,000 panel TV units in 2009, as against 300,000 last year, which will enhance its market share in the segment to over 40 per cent from the present 39.8 per cent. “Our internal plan is to have 40 per cent contribution from slim and ultra-slim models to our overall television business, from 30 per cent in 2008,” he said.

Zutshi said the panel TV market in the country, which was 4.6 million units last year and is expected to touch 5.2 million units this year, is growing strong with about 100 per cent rate, and so is Samsung in this category.

“Though the Indian Premier League (IPL) has shifted to South Africa, television sales will be blooming in both the countries. Strong viewership means strong intent to buy a TV ... and we expect more business this quarter both from flat and panel categories,” he said.

Samsung, which has the capacity to manufacture 1.5 million TV units a year at Noida and a matching number at its Chennai plant, sold 1.9 million units last year in the country. It hopes to increase this to about 2.5 million units in 2009, which will imply a growth of about 31 per cent.

The television market in India was at 12.4 million units in 2008, which is estimated to touch 13.5 million units this year. “This will also increase our share in the flat TV market to 26 per cent, from last year's 24.8 per cent,” Zutshi said.

Riding high on the sales of six ultra-slim models that it launched last week, Samsung is lining up a slew of new products next month. These, along with the newly-launched products, will drive the company’s audio-video (AV) business to contribute over 50 per cent to the company’s revenues, he said, adding that Samsung expects a 27 per cent growth on the $1.7-billion revenues that it achieved last year.