NEW DELHI: China-based TCL, the third-largest TV manufacturer globally, is drawing up big plans on the smart segment here and aiming to corner around 5 per cent market by the next year-end.
TCL, which sold nearly 80,000 sets from October last year in the domestic market, mostly through online, is expanding in the offline format and expects to have a pan-India sales network by mid of 2018. "This year, we would have around 1 per cent of the total TV market, which would be around 1,00,000 and next year, we are targeting 5 per cent market share," TCL India Regional Director Praveen Valecha told PTI today.
According to industry body Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association, in 2016-17, the panel TV market was about 14.5 million units with a growth of 20 per cent, around 12 per cent of which is smart TV.
"The smart TV market is growing exponentially and is expected to reach Rs 54,000 crore in 2017. These new launches will help us make strong inroads into the smart TV market," he added.
As part of that strategy, TCL today launched Google Certified 4K UHD Android smart TV series C2 and P2M ranging between Rs 62,990 to Rs 1.09 lakh. The company is looking to be one of the dominant players in the smart TV segment, which has become very competitive and is growing over 170 per cent annually.
"We would offer the latest technology with affordability," he said, adding that "30 per cent of TV market next year would be smart TV and in next three years, it would be 80 per cent".
The company has just started its offline sales and is expanding its footprint. "We would have a complete all-India presence by mid of the next year. This year, our focus would be mostly on South and West and gradually, we would move to North and East," he added.
The company is also working on creating media content library, which will be India specific for its customers here."It would be Indian entertainment with Bollywood films songs and education. We are working on it and hopefully, we would update in one month," Valecha added.
The company is sourcing its range of smart TVs from China and also weighing plans to manufacture products here. "We are evaluating options of manufacturing in India," he said.
TCL Multimedia Country Manager Mike Chen said: "It's our strategy from the beginning to have a factory assembling TV and an R&D centre. We would build it here."
Besides TV, TCL is present in India with other product segments, which include smartphones and smartwatches.