The Hindu Business Line : Japan’s Sharp takes long-term view of Indian market

Recently in Osaka, Japan Sharp Corporation of Japan, whose focus, among other consumer durables, is its large-screen, high-definition LCD TV range called Aquos, hopes that its plans for the Indian market will yield results between 2011 and 2015.

At a press conference, Mr Hiroshi Kusao, Division General Manager, LCD Digital Systems Division IV, Audio-Visual Systems Group, said that the offtake of automobiles both big and small in India by varied income groups fuelled their optimism that LCD TVs too would take off in a big way with growing disposable incomes and consumerism.

He said the company is planning final assembly activities of these TVs in India and Indonesia later. Mr Kusao said Sharp will drive the trend towards large-screen TVs to counter price erosion. When it was pointed out that there was no high-definition TV broadcast yet in India, he said that the TV could be used for DVD viewing, gaming and Blu-Ray discs. On the question of engineering an affordable product for the Indian market, he said that it was a strategy that had to be explored. Earlier, at a reception held for visiting mediapersons, Mr Takayuki Yamazaki, Director/General Manager, Asia Regional Marketing, told Business Line the company will have to consider signing on a brand ambassador to publicise its products.

Mulls brand ambassador

“We need a brand ambassador, may be a lady brand ambassador,” Mr Yamazaki, who had earlier worked in India, said. So who will it be?

“We don’t know yet. We will have to discuss with our Indian colleagues and decide on somebody,” said Mr Yamazaki, who is himself familiar only with actors Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan.

Large-screen TVs

Sharp’s focus is on its large-screen TVs (40-inch and 52-inch and larger) worldwide, but it does have smaller size TVs in India, from 32-inch to 52-inch in screen size. The prices range from Rs 49,990 to Rs 3.69 lakh.

Its conventional TVs, made in its Pune facility, are priced Rs 4,990 onwards. Currently, Sharp has five exclusive outlets, branded Sharp Galaxy, in Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore, but an official mentioned that more of them would not be a priority as the revenues are not high enough to support exclusive stores.

The company is hoping for significant sales in China, which is hosting the Olympics this year. Its research shows that the demand for LCD TVs will rise to 98 million units this year, 116 million next year, 133 million in 2010 and 148 million in 2011. Most of this growth is expected from Asia.

Sharp has a big presence in the US and European markets but as these markets are getting saturated and demand is falling, it’s training its sights on China, India and West Asia. Research made available by Sharp says that by 2011 China will account for 20.5 per cent market share in LCD TVs from 13 per cent in 2007 and Asia Pacific 14.9 per cent.

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