epages News [Electronics, December 2003]

DVD Forum okays Toshiba, NEC models

Dec 03, 2003: Amsterdam: Toshiba and NEC have won a round in the fight for standardising the format for DVDs as their technology has been embraced by an industry forum, but the real battle is won by consumers and Hollywood. Japan ’s Toshiba and NEC received the support from the DVD Forum last month, but it was only over the weekend that the news spread into the public domain. Last year, the two companies pitched their version of a blue-laser DVD player against that of a consortium of the world’s biggest electronics makers, including Japan ’s Sony and Matsushita and Dutch firm Philips. Sony and Philips are also members of the DVD Forum. Blue-laser DVD players will replace the current red-laser DVD players in a few years. A blue-laser disc can store around five times more information than red-laser discs.

Flat panel TV prices set to tumble 30%

Dec 06, 2003: New York: If a reasonably priced flat panel TV is on your holiday wish list, you might want to wait until next year. Shoppers looking for deep bargains on expensive flat-panel televisions will find only marginal discounts as the holiday season heats up, but experts say prices will tumble by some 30% in 2004. Fueled by an anticipated jump in production, that drop may help bring the svelte TVs closer to a mainstream audience by making the screens - some which cost as much as a new car or a semester of college tuition, more affordable. Currently, flat panel TV sales are still dwarfed by sales of bulky old-fashioned TVs, which still cost considerably less. A 27-inch flat panel TV can cost over $2000, more than 10 times what a similar-sized boxy TV would cost. Flat panel TVs come in two forms: liquid crystal displays, or LCD, and plasma. In LCDs, electrical current causes the crystals to align so that light selectively passes through them. With plasma, each pixel on the screen is illuminated by bits of charged gas, somewhat like a neon light.

More and more consumers are drooling at the sight of the high-quality TVs in stores, eyeing the thin screens as replacements for older, bulkier cathode ray tube and projection TVs. But, wary of sky-high prices, average shoppers are pondering whether to buy now or wait for prices to drop. Leading electronics retailer Best Buy Co Inc. this week advertised 42-inch Plasma TVs for $4,000 to $6,000. Samsung Corp. is the most aggressive investor in flat screens at the moment. It announced a $16.6 billion spending plan for the next 10 years and agreed to a $2 billion deal with Japan 's Sony Corp. to boost production. TV makers can help themselves by cutting prices, analysts said. Research firm iSuppli estimates global sales of LCD TVs will by 2007 reach 27 million, and 10 million in North America. Global plasma sales by 2007 will reach 6 million.

Sony pares back specs for all-in-one PSX console

Dec 06, 2003: Tokyo: Sony Corp said it had pared back specifications for its all-in-one PSX console, an entertainment system that includes a hard disk drive (HDD) and DVD recorder plus a PlayStation 2 game machine. Sony reduced the PSX's dubbing speed from its hard disk drive onto a DVD to 12 times normal speed from 24 times. The machine also will not record or play DVDs in the DVD+RW format, as in the original plan, but it will play and record in DVD-R or DVD-RW formats. The PSX will not play CDs in the CD-R format, as planned, and there also will be no video format support for certain Sony digital cameras and support for MP3 music playback.

The entertainment system, to go on sale on December 13 in Japan, is part of Sony's push to roll out cutting-edge products from its electronics division in the October-December quarter. The company has rushed to get the much-anticipated PSX on shop shelves before the end of the holiday shopping season. The original specifications were announced on October 7 at an industry event, but Sony had said then they could be changed. Nikko Salomon Smith Barney said in a note to clients that electronics retailers were warning customers that some of the specification have been pared back. A PSX with a 160-gigabyte HDD will sell for 79,800 yen ($731) and be able to record up to 204 hours of television. Sony will also sell a 250-gigabyte version for 99,800 yen. The company said the missing functions can be replaced from downloads via the Internet in the future. Shares of Sony closed down 0.54% at 3,690 yen, compared to a 1.09% fall in the Tokyo market's electric machinery sub-index.

Philips targets 25% stake in Phoenix Lamps unit

Dec 10, 2003: New Delhi : Philips India is in negotiations to pick up a minority stake in one of the three units of Noida-based Phoenix Lamps. With a production capacity of 15m units, Phoenix is the largest manufacturer of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) in India . According to sources, the Dutch lighting major is looking to pick up around 25% shareholding in the Phoenix unit in Uttaranchal, which is being spun-off into a separate company. Philips is also entering into an offtake agreement with the Uttaranchal unit to outsource CFL for the domestic market. According to sources in Phoenix , the deal with Philips is expected to be signed by March next year. At present, Philips buys around 6 lakh units of CFL per month from Phoenix , which will double after the present deal. The Dutch MNC’s entire requirement of CFL for the domestic market is supplied by Phoenix . Phoenix has a domestic brand by the name of Halonix, and it will continue to push it even after the deal.

Though the details of the deal are still being worked out, sources say that the unit will be spun off as a subsidiary of Phoenix Lamps India. As a result, the proceeds of the equity sale to Philips would accrue to the parent company. Besides Philips, Phoenix also supplies CFLs to Crompton Greaves and Bajaj. Currently, the company manufactures around 7-8 lakh units of CFL per annum. Apart from this, Phoenix is also the largest manufacturer of automotive halogen lamps in the country, with an installed capacity of around 55m units per annum. During the first six months of ’03-04, Phoenix recorded net sales of Rs 38 crore and a net profit of Rs 2.8 crore.

Hitachi's back in India with top-end products

Dec 13, 2003: New Delhi: Japanese electronics giant Hitachi is re-entering the Indian consumer electronics market. The company is planning to restrict itself to the top end of the market, including plasma TVs and other new technology products, and would in turn be a niche segment operator. Hitachi, which has a clutch of subsidiaries in India, has decided to take the distributor route to enter the market. All the products will be imported by distributors from Singapore, from where the operations will be controlled. A few years back, the company had launched its products through a tie-up with Baron, which later ended. This time round, it is making an entry with its plasma TVs and home theatre systems priced between Rs 35,000 and Rs 4,65,000, and plans to introduce LCD TVs and bigger sizes of plasma TV in the near future. Hitachi is targeting a 20% share of the plasma TV market in India. Initially, the target audience would comprise metros and mini metros. Distribution would be done through 16 home theatre showrooms in these cities.

Hitachi's back in India with top-end products

Dec 15, 2003: New Delhi: Japanese electronics giant Hitachi is re-entering the Indian consumer electronics market. The company is planning to restrict itself to the top end of the market, including plasma TVs and other new technology products, and would in turn be a niche segment operator. Hitachi, which has a clutch of subsidiaries in India, has decided to take the distributor route to enter the market. All the products will be imported by distributors from Singapore, from where the operations will be controlled. A few years back, the company had launched its products through a tie-up with Baron, which later ended.

This time round, it is making an entry with its plasma TVs and home theatre systems priced between Rs 35,000 and Rs 4,65,000, and plans to introduce LCD TVs and bigger sizes of plasma TV in the near future. Hitachi is targeting a 20% share of the plasma TV market in India. Initially, the target audience would comprise metros and mini metros. Distribution would be done through 16 home theatre showrooms in these cities.

BenQ expanding India operations

Dec 17, 2003: Bangalore: Networked digital lifestyle devices provider BenQ said it would expand its India operations by creating a new division Digital Media which will focus on growing its marketshare in corporate and government segments. A new business head has been appointed for this initiative and Digital Media portfolio includes digital projectors, LCD panels, plasma displays and joy books (laptops), a company statement said. While the company will launch new product categories such as LCD TVs (15" and 20") this month and joy books in January, it will also increase its product range for digital projectors from two to a portfolio of six. In a move to increase BenQ's penetration into the north Indian markets, the company has appointed Savi Vision as the distributor for its range of projectors, it said.

Villages beat the urban myth in TV ownership

Dec 18, 2003: If you thought the television is a luxury reserved for the urban masses, think again. Data shows that the availability of television in villages is higher than in cities for half the states in the country. Overall, the tilt is still urban; urban areas account for 57% of TV sets in the country. But this figure fails to highlight the fact that the situation is actually reverse in 15 states of the country. The proportion of TV sets available in rural areas is particularly high for Himachal Pradesh (83.5%), Sikkim (71.2%) and Kerala (62.3%). Haryana, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Assam and Bihar are some of the other states that show this trend.

This is partly due to a very simple fact that these states have more people in rural areas, therefore the absolute number of TVs should be higher. Another indicator the number of households per TV set that puts the picture in perspective. This is consistently lower for urban areas and higher for rural areas by an average of five points. Even then, states at the top of the TV availability charts also have a low household per TV available, which implies increasing penetration of TV in some areas. States like Haryana and Punjab, with a higher proportion of TVs in rural areas, are also the ones with low household-TV ratios. In fact, their ratios are comparable with those in urban areas in the state. On the other hand, states with lower number of TV sets available to the rural population are also the ones with a household-TV ratio of as much as 15.

Back-office king India is now the world's factory

Dec 19, 2003: It is not only the IT jobs that are moving to India, the manufacturing sector is also following on the footsteps of the services sector and setting up bases in India. It is the lure of cutting costs that are bringing these companies to India. Prominent among these are global television major Toshiba and the UK-based JCB, a construction equipment major. Both the companies are setting up manufacturing base in India in the next 18 months. The location and other details are yet to be finalised. Toshiba, which specialises in advanced electronics, will soon introduce new models in India where it started operations two years ago. During this financial year, nearly two-lakh colour televisions would be sold in India, including 2,500 big screen 'projection TV sets'.

Toshiba is planning to open 25 exclusive premier showrooms in India before the middle of next year. The locations included Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Chennai. Toshiba sold six million colour TV sets in the world during last year, registering a turnover of $3-4 -billion in colour TV segments. In comparison to last year, they expect a 20% growth globally. JCB, which is one of the finest engineering companies in Europe, too is planning to move base to India and offer local support via 24-hour parts back-up facility and complete after-sales care.It plans to make JCB India its hub for supplying products to the entire South East Asian market, including Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia and Korea. Till now, JCB has four manufacturing plants all over the world including India. Other three are in the US, Brazil and UK. The UK hub at present caters to the South East Asian market.

Philips to launch open 'secure' digi media system

Dec 19, 2003: Eindhoven: Philips Electronics said it was six months away from launching a system against illegal copying that will allow consumers to play digital video and music on any digital media player. Philips hopes the so-called digital rights management system being developed by Intertrust, which it jointly owns with Japan ’s Sony, will replace a confusing array of proprietary systems. Digital music stores which have opened on the Internet this year use different DRM methods to protect songs against unlimited copying. But consumers can then only play the music on computers, CD and MP3 players which support the same DRM system.

LG's Christmas bonanza

Dec 20, 2003: LG Electronics India Pvt. Limited (LGEIL), the market leader in the display and optical storage devices segment, has announced a very attractive promotional scheme for its MY PC range of computers this Christmas season. The super scheme is operational and will run through December 25, 2003 or till stock lasts and offers unique opportunity to consumers to win assured gifts and packages worth Rs 27,490 on purchase of LG’s MY PC range of computers. Under the scheme the consumers on the purchase of MY PC range gets assured gifts like Wipro 500VA UPS, holiday packages to domestic and international destination, 50 hrs Internet connection, family manager software, 10 CD packs, Lotus Smart suite, Joy sticks and driving wheel. All this can be bought on a true zero-present finance scheme. LG Electronics is focussed on promoting home network and mobile network business based on cutting edge multimedia application technology along with information and communication technology as its core business areas. LG Electronics goal is to enable the intelligent networking of digital products that will make consumer lives easier than ever.

Electrolux plans to enter AC market

Dec 22, 2003: Hyderabad: Electrolux Kelvinator Limited (EKL), a subsidiary of the Electrolux Group, Sweden, plans to expand its product portfolio in India by launching air-conditioners and microwaves early next year. These two products are in addition to a host of models of refrigerators and washing machines that the company plans to launch in the first half of next year. The air-conditioners and microwaves would be launched first in the north, and subsequently in the western, southern and eastern markets in a phased manner. The microwaves would be imported and marketed, while the air-conditioners would be a mixture of imported parts and outsourcing from contract manufacturers.

These two products apart, the company has chalked out launching 10 different models of refrigerators and four models of washing machines in the first half of next year. The company now enjoys a market share of 13% in the refrigerators and another 10% in the washing machines in the country. The new models include Telugu version of its highly successful and technologically superior `Washy Talky’ washing machines, side-by-side refrigerators, and hands-free refrigerators. These products have been fitted with special features based on extensive feedback and keeping in view the said and un-said requirements of potential customers.

Electronics hardware exports hits Rs 5,600

Dec 22, 2003: New Delhi: Electronics hardware exports from India clocked Rs 5,600 crore in 2002-03 with EU being the largest destination accounting for 26% of the total exports, according to Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC). The EU has emerged as the largest importer of the electronic hardware from India with an import turnover of Rs 1,468 crore, which is 26% of the total electronics hardware exports, the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council said while adding electronics components were the major items of exports.

Export of electronics components constituted 43% of the total exports of electronics hardware touching Rs 2,400 crore. Consumer electronics were the third largest items clocking an export turnover of Rs 750 crore accounting for 13% followed by computer hardware (9%) and telecom equipment (8%). After EU, the second largest destination was Singapore, Hong Kong and neighbouring countries accounting for 25% at Rs 1,429 crore followed by the US, Canada accounted for 24% of the exports during the period. Fourth largest destination for export of electronic hardware was Middle East accounting for 11% and Japan, Korea and others constituting 7%.

Wal-Mart in talks with Mirc, Videocon for TVs

Dec 22, 2003: New Delhi: The Wal-Mart buzz is spilling over from traditional textiles and leather industries to electronics. At least two Indian companies — Mirc Electronics, which sells Onida, the single largest selling domestic brand of colour television, and Videocon, the largest CTV manufacturer in the country are in negotiations with the US retail behemoth to supply televisions. While Wal-Mart has been looking at India to broadbase its sourcing requirements, the move has been precipitated by the imposition of anti-dumping duty on Chinese TV imports into the US. Interestingly, the US trade authorities had used India as a surrogate country to calculate the manufacturing costs of a CTV before imposing the duty on Chinese imports.

The negotiations have just commenced, but if it materialises, the deals would provide one of the first triumphs for Indian Electronics Company over their cheaper Chinese counterparts, in what is one of the biggest CTV markets in the world. The total size of the North American TV market is 34m units against India ’s 10m, including B&W. If the negotiations yield results, the top lines of these companies will boost substantially, though margins may not improve given the business model of Walmart. However, in terms of brand presence, the US will be a virgin territory for Onida against Videocon, which has already been exporting to the country. Mirc, on the other hand, has been dealing with hypermarkets including Carrefour in the Middle East. Indian manufacturers will be competing with other manufacturers from Mexico, Thailand and Indonesia, given the fact that the domestic industry in the US has been extinguished in the past by cheap but tech-heavy foreign brands.

GM completes sale of Hughes to News Corp

Dec 24, 2003: New York: General Motors (GM) has completed the $6.6 billion split-off of its Hughes electronics unit, the parent of DirecTV, to international media giant News Corp. GM’s class H shares, which represented Hughes, were converted into Hughes shares. News Corp. bought from shareholders an additional 14.2% stake in Hughes in exchange for News Corp stock. The deal received Federal Communications Commission approval.

It provides News Corp. with 11 million US satellite television subscribers and ties DirecTV to News Corp’s Fox Television unit. It makes News Corp the second-largest provider of pay-TV service in the United States, behind cable giant Comcast Corp. The deal could potentially offer more competition to the cable industry, which has seen DirecTV and Echostar Communication’s service eat away at its subscriber base.

Indianisation of global consumer electronic brands soon

Dec 26, 2003: New Delhi: The year 2003 will be remembered as being a landmark one, with several multinational brands trying to re-enter an already overcrowded Indian market even as domestic players vied to set up manufacturing bases abroad and Indianise the global market. Chinese mega brands Haier and TCL have returned despite biting the dust the first time round; Korean brand Daewoo has forged an equity tieup with Anchor Electronics for its second trial in the Indian market. Japanese major Aiwa has also been relaunched in the country by Sony, which acquired it globally. But even as global brands are trying to get a toehold in India, domestic companies have trained their sights on foreign lands for setting up manufacturing units and making Indian brands global. According to industry estimates, prices across product categories have fallen by 10-15% this year and this trend is expected to continue.

Coming to the domestic market, while existing brands continued in their fierce battle for supremacy and market share, this year was marked by smaller brands being hit hard due to larger ones' strategy of multi-pricing. Brands like LG adopted a mutli-pricing strategy where products were made available at rural and semi-urban markets at substantial discounts to prices in urban market. This not only helped national brands consolidate further, it undercut the advantage enjoyed by brands like Beltek, Oscar, Western on both the price front and in terms of features. Meanwhile, under the aegis of Consumer Electronics and TV Manufacturers Association the industry has been trying to make the government heed its requests on duty structure, citing the fact that even when unit sales of CTVs have been growing, total TV sales did not register any significant increase, since black & white set sales were declining proportionately. The coming year should bring further good cheer to this industry with increased sales and better value-for-money products being developed.

Electronic components export registers 200% growth

Dec 29, 2003: New Delhi: The export of electronic components registered a whopping 200% growth between 1997-98 and 2002-03 riding on increased outsourcing by multinational companies, according to Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council. European Union countries were the largest destination for electronic component exports during 2002-03 accounting for 42% of the total exports, touching Rs 1,002 crore during the period against Rs 676 crore in the previous year. The second largest export destination was Singapore, Hong Kong and neighbouring countries with a total export turnover of Rs 562 crore, accounting for a market share of 23%. Electronics components exports to US and Canada slipped to the third slot from the second which it had occupied in the previous year. The market share has come down by 32% in 2002-03 to Rs 405 crore, it said. Middle East countries with an export turnover of Rs 181 crore have become the fourth largest destination of electronics components exports.

TVS Elec spurts to Rs 123 on BSE, post-merger

Dec 29, 2003: Bangalore: TVS Electronics, which completed its reverse merger with TVS e-Technology following the Sebi clearance, debuted on stock exchanges on December 26 with a substantial premium and trading volumes. The scrip which had suspended trading on the BSE at Rs 74, closed on December 26 at Rs 123 with over 1.5 lakh shares changing hands, said market sources. Following all necessary regulatory clearances, TVS Electronics completed its amalgamation with TVS eTechnology, which was a group company into facilities management, enterprise solution management and third party maintenance. The swap ratio for the reverse merger was held at 1:1, where an unlisted TVS eTech merged into a listed firm TVS Electronics. Backed by buoyant growth in the information technology hardware market, TVS Electronics posted a 26% rise in its topline at Rs 126 crore in the first half of this fiscal, as against Rs 100 crore in the same period last year, with the company expecting to maintain similar growth in the second half. However, the sales had remained flat at Rs 222 crore during the previous year till December ’02.

Both TVS Electronics, which was a listed company, and eTechnology were arms of the same holding company, TVS Investments. While TVS Electronics is a major player in the computer peripherals market, TVS eTech maintains IT appliances and applications for corporate customers. TVS Electronics, with its success in TVS Proton termed as the world’s quickest bill printer, has raised its market share in the dot matrix printer market despite a poor industry growth. The company had recently entered into a tieup for manufacturing STBs with technical inputs from a German firm. As per this deal, TVS Elec would manufacture 15,000 units per month and explore opportunities in both Indian and global markets for STBs.

Low-end TV makers set for a price war

Dec 31, 2003: Mumbai: Consumer durable manufacturers are bracing themselves for the next round of price wars early ’04. Entry market strategies by new players, TCL and Haire will whip up further competition in the market. There are also strong speculations of the re-launch of the Aiwa colour television by Sony and a comeback by the currently languishing BPL brand. The price wars are expected primarily in the low end of the fiercely competitive colour television segment. Industry players said the price wars are expected mostly in the low end of the market.

Industry sources also said that BPL has been doing the necessary groundwork to get back into the limelight in ’04. Although company officials were not available for comment, sources said the company is arranging the necessary finances to get into a foreign collaboration. Sony, in turn is planning to slot Aiwa in the low end of the market. After settling the brand in the audio market and gathering enough consumer confidence, the company is expected to launch Aiwa CTVs in the near future. Currently, the durable industry derives more than 70% of its volumes from the mid and mass end of the market. Mid and mass-end products are priced in the range of around Rs 6,000-13,000.

Sharp plans to cash in on LCD demand

Dec 31, 2003: Tokyo: Japanese electronics maker Sharp said it may boost the capacity of a new plant due to go on line from January that will make liquid crystal panels to meet growing demand for large flat-panel TVs. Sharp is the world’s largest maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions, but faces growing competition from aggressive Asian rivals like Samsung Electronics.

 

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