India digital projector sales grow 42.9 p.c.

NEW DELHI, INDIA:  The year 2011 was a success for the India digital projector market with a very robust first half witnessing a growth of 28.9 per cent sequentially. The second half of 2011 traditionally seen as a lean period, too  registered a 13.1 per cent sequential growth in unit shipments.

The overall India digital projector market recorded sales (unit shipments) of 1,94,528 units in CY 2011.

"The Education sector emerged as the key demand driver for the India digital projector market with the steady countrywide adoption of modern teaching aids (like smartboards), and new technologies (such as PCs and digital projectors) by educational institutions in the last 2-3 years", said Sumanta Mukherjee, lead analyst, IT Hardware, Peripherals and Channels Practice, CyberMedia Research.

"Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Right to Education Act drove demand with schools, colleges and universities adopting more effective teaching aids and methodologies to reduce stress on faculty members, in the face of rising student: teacher ratios", added Poonam Khanna-Wadhwa, analyst, IT Peripherals, CyberMedia Research.

In the overall India Digital projector market, Epson gained leadership position with around 13 per cent share, followed by BenQ and InFocus at around 11 per cent each at No. 2 during 2H CY 2011.

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Educomp, an educational services company started sourcing its own brand of projectors in the second half of 2011 and along with Hitachi jointly recorded a 10 per cent share in terms of sales (unit shipments) during the period.

LCD projectors account for 55 per cent of total shipments while XGA sales grow to capture 54 per cent of the market in 2H CY 2011.

The second half of CY 2011 was witness to another inflection point in the India Digital Projector market in terms of resolution — the share of XGA resolution projectors witnessed a jump, primarily because of deals in the Education sector. This was helped by the fact that the price gap between XGA and SVGA projectors reduced substantially during 2H 2011.

"ICT integration in a large majority of educational institutions in India is still at a nascent stage, which presents good growth opportunities for vendors. Entry level projector models are expected to continue to drive vendors' portfolios to meet bulk demand from government schools as well as private schools", Poonam further added.

"Traditionally, many school managements related to IT as an added overhead. However, going forward, increasing demand for quality education, particularly from middle class families who would like to provide the best opportunities to their children will see a growth in adoption of technology aids in the Education space", concluded Poonam.