K.T Jagannathan

CHENNAI: Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd. would aim for a 45 per cent market share in FPTV (flat panel display television) space in 2008. In 2007, its share in the Indian FPTV market was 42 per cent.

R. Zutshi, Deputy Managing Director of Samsung India, said the industry sales numbers for FPTVs stood at 400,000 in 2007. This number would go up to 900,000 in 2008. Currently a leader in the LCD category with 42 per cent share (1.68 lakh units) of the market, Samsung was hoping to sell around 400,000 units in 2008. "We expect to grow by 140 per cent over last year to garner at least 45 per cent share of the LCD market this year," he said.

Globally, FPTVs formed 53 per cent of the total TV market. This was expected to go up to 62 per cent by the end of 2008 and further to 75 per cent by 2010. In India, this category contributed to only seven per cent of the TV market, he said, pointing to growth opportunities in this space. LCDs were a dominant contributor to sales globally in FPTV category. In India, too, LCDs were dominating the sales with a share of 90 per cent.

Samsung, he said, had put in place a multi-pronged approach to cash in on this opportunity. Expansion of reach through more multi-brand outlets, increasing the total number of brand stores in the country to 200 from the present 115 and focusing on tapping large format retail stores were among the initiatives that Samsung was planning this year to drive the sales of FPTVs, he said. "We see a remarkable growth in non-metro cities," Mr. Zutshi said, underlining Samsung's keenness to move into tier II and tier III cities.

Samsung on Thursday unveiled a new range of HD (high definition) LCD and Plasma TVs here. With the launch of the new range, Samsung, he said, was looking at owning the full HD platform in the Indian market. "We expect the full HD flat panel TV range to contribute to over 20 per cent of our flat panel TV volumes," he said addressing a press conference. The HD TV range (in LCD and Plasma categories) sported smooth finish infused with a hint of a translucent colour, which, Mr. Zutshi said, was a patented design.

With sales of 1.5 million units in 2007, Samsung enjoyed a 21.4 per cent share in the Indian flat-screen TV market. In the current year, it was confident of selling 2.1 million units and improving the market share to 25 per cent. Mr. Zutshi, however, put his bet on FPDTVs to drive the company's overall numbers and brand image in the days to come.

In an interaction with this correspondent, he said Samsung had indeed forced to increase refrigerator price by three per cent last month due to cost pressures. The company was also contemplating a 3-4 per cent price increase on air-conditioners. In the air-conditioners, he was expected Samsung to sell 2.2 million pieces in 2008, up from 1.8 million in 2007.

The company, he said, would aim to garner a market share of 65 per cent in air-conditioners. Mr. Zutshi expected Samsung to post a 40 per cent sales in CTV in the second quarter over the same period last year in the wake of new product launches and the ongoing Indian Premier League-devised T-20 Cricket series. He was confident of Samsung posting a 30 per cent growth in revenue in 2008, which currently stood at $1.35 billion.