Awareness about Liquid Crystal
G. Ravishankar
The television we view is becoming
gradually outdated.
People would like
to have sleek monitor to have a crystal clear view. As LCD TV prices have dropped by 30% this
year to reach as low as US $ 80 Entry level major brands are gearing up to take
advantage of consumer demand and ride on
the price erosion factor.
LG is strengthening its dealer relationship in India besides offering
attractive EMIs in order to penetrate deeper besides splurge on the ad and
communication for this
category( their overall spend for the festive season)
while Samsung is launching some new LCD models
At present, the LCD and plasma TV market together is pegged at 2 lakh units but
is expected to double by next year to 4 lakh units. Industry observers say by
next Diwali, the LCD range will start from Rs 18,000, an unbelievable price for
Indian consumers.
Even Indian players such as Onida are aggressively marketing their LCDs. The
company is, in act, setting up its manufacturing unit to start production of
LCDs in India.
Says Girish Rao, VP-sales & marketing, LG India, “The global price
reduction is reflecting in the Indian market.” The category has witnessed more
than 30% price drop in India
since January.
LG is following a three pronged strategy to push the sales in this category,
which entails launches of new models, realignment of prices along with focus on
providing easy finance and covering the costs for the dealers due to
fluctuation of prices.
“We have devised a systematic way to deal with this problem and that has
increased dealer participation in the recent past,” he adds.
Samsung is also banking on the LCD category in a big way as it targets sales of
around 20,000 units in September-October. “Given that prices have shown a drop
of around 30-35% this year, we do not anticipate any further price drops,” says
Ravinder Zutshi , deputy MD , Samsung India.
Onida, a late entrant in the category is pulling itself now to join the
bandwagon alongside the Korean majors. Says Vivek Sharma, VP-marketing and
sales, Onida,”We have got aggressive in this category only in the past six
months but now the commitment will continue with the manufacturing unit coming
up along with our other ongoing strategies.”
Onida currently has 3% market share but is targeting a 10% share by next year.
The two Korean chabeols, LG and Samsung, between themselves occupy almost 80%
of the market in the flat panel display market.
With the increase in sales of LCD TVs,
how the new technology attracted the attention of consumers? Amazingly, only 30% of people are aware of
the LCD technology. There’s an urgent
need to educate people about LCD technology.
We probably use items
containing an LCD (liquid crystal display) every day. They are all around us --
in laptop computers, digital clocks and watches, microwave ovens, CD players
and many other electronic devices. LCDs are common because they offer some real
advantages over other display technologies. They are thinner and lighter and
draw much less power than cathode ray tubes (CRTs)
But just what are these things called liquid crystals? The name "liquid
crystal" sounds like a contradiction. We think of a crystal as a solid
material like quartz, usually as hard as rock, and a liquid is obviously
different. How could any material combine the two?
What is LCD technology?
There are three common states
of matter: solid, liquid or gaseous. Solids act the way they do because their
molecules always maintain their orientation and stay in the same position with
respect to one another. The molecules in liquids are just the opposite: They
can change their orientation and move anywhere in the liquid. But there are
some substances that can exist in an odd state that is sort of like a liquid
and sort of like a solid. When they are in this state, their molecules tend to
maintain their orientation, like the molecules in a solid, but also move around
to different positions, like the molecules in a liquid. This means that liquid
crystals are neither a solid nor a liquid. That''s how they ended up with their
seemingly contradictory name.