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Neha Kaushik

New Delhi , March 9

WITH declining prices and the easy availability of DVD software, the DVD player market is booming.

According to industry officials, the market grew at a phenomenal 250 per cent during the calendar year 2004 to about 1.3-1.4 million units.

Furthermore, with more players coming out with aggressive pricing strategies, this figure is expected to touch the 3.6-million unit mark in the current year.

"The rapid erosion in prices has been a key reason for the growth. While entry-level pricing about 2-3 years back was about Rs 8,000, this fell to Rs 5,000 last year. Pricing of DVDs is expected to hit the Rs 3,000-level in the current year," the official said.

"We are targeting a market share of about 25-30 per cent in the current year, helped by our new products and pricing strategy. We sold over 2,00,000 units last year, with most of the sales coming in the second half of the year as we launched our products around then," said Mr C.M. Singh, Product Group Head - Consumer Electronics, LG Electronics India.

Analysts point out that the company may be looking to emulate Philips' success in the segment last year. Philips had launched an entry level pricing of Rs 4,990 last year. Meanwhile, the price gap between national level players and regional players such as Oscar and Beltek is also coming down. Industry officials point out that gains by the regional players will be squeezed as the price difference between the national and regional brands is only about 10-12 per cent at present. "This difference is also because regional players save on overheads such as advertising and distribution. There is, however, a definite shift towards national brands," a market analyst said.

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