Charting the Growth of Viewsonic in Indian Market
Muneer Ahmad, Business Head, AV PRODUCTS
ViewSonic, a leading provider of display solutions, has been working towards creating distinct, eye-catching visual products portfolios which, instantly communicate such attributes as brilliant color and sharp resolution. In conversation with Anil Chopra – Director, AV–ISE, with Business Head, AV Products - Muneer Ahmad, discusses ViewSonic products, launches, escalation of ViewSonic in India, and their future strategies.
Widely acclaimed company in providing color perfect display solutions, ViewSonic started its operations in California, USA, in 1987. Ever since then, ViewSonic has managed to diversify its presence in almost to 28 countries. “We have been successful at delivering almost perfect color to image display solutions right from the early 90s. In fact, our logo the Gouldian Finches signifies clear distinctive colors,” says Muneer Ahmad – Business Head – AV products, ViewSonic India
When asked about their product line, especially in India, Ahmad says “ViewSonic has been focused towards only one thing since its period of inception and that is visual displays. We have our product line broaden into projectors, monitors, interactive flat panels, video walls, digital signages, ViewPads and more. Now, we have also extended intocloud solutions which gives a user-friendly and systematic approach to the presentations and helps avoid the mess on the board. When it comes to the Indian market, we are strong footed into three product lines - the projectors, Interactive Flat Panels i.e. the IFPs, and monitors.”
ViewSonic has seen a steady growth in the Indian market, especially, for the past two years. It has seen a growth from 9,000 units in 2017 to nearly 25,000 units in 2018 in projector sales alone, surging ViewSonic from 14th position to the 3rd spot as per a Future Source report. Elaborating on what makes Viewsonic products such a standout compared to other products in the market “as far as our products are concerned there are quite a few specs which set us apart from our competitors. If I had to give an example the best one would be that all of our projectors are DLP technology based (In comparison to other DLP brand projectors our Projectors are giving better colors to the image which is because of our color wheel. ViewSonic’s projector color wheel is custom designed by our R&D team and has the closest resemblance to the color quality required. A projector comprises color wheels, chips, optics like a lens, and more; The color wheel gives accurate color to the images when it comes to the DLP Projectors and considering our color wheel is custom designed by us, gives it a much closer color reach. Aside to the color wheel, we have various features like the horizontal and vertical keystones, LAN controls, products like cube speaker and more” says Ahmad.
There has definitely been a close to 30% - 40% growth in the Indian AV market. The private and public sectors have been investing majorly into AV projects and towards providing modern AV infrastructures. This is very positive for us and we foresee a very good opportunity of growth in India. The private and public sectors have been investing majorly into AV projects and towards providing modern AV infrastructures.
Muneer Ahmad, Business Head, AV PRODUCTS
ViewSonic has been quite on the forefront in bringing out innovative new technologies. Talking about their latest products in the market Ahmad says “one of our projectors - the M1 recently won an award for its vivid and immersive viewing performance for all entertainment types in a stylish, intuitive design. We plan to go forward with this legacy in providing superior quality projectors, IFPs, and monitors to the Indian market. We recently launched a key product which is very unique to us and no other company has launched similar product it yet in India . It’s the X10 – 4k LED Projector, it’s the first 4k LED Projectors with inbuilt apps with Harman/Kardon speakers. Till date, no higher lumen projector has featured in-built apps in it, it was an attribute unique to the televisions. Now ViewSonic’s X-10 is the first projector to have this feature. The X10-4K has an integrated Smart TV interface for easy streaming of TV shows and movies from popular content services, while its built-in OS provides access to popular apps via the Android Aptoide store. It also has a short throw projection making it perfect for a home set up. We have certain features in the X10 projectors which our competitors are yet to explore.
ViewSonic has witnessed exponential growth in the last two years alone. Talking about the reasons for the growth of their IFPs and its rising demands Ahmad says “We have just ventured into Interactive Flat Panels (IFP) and have managed to be the third best brand in India for IFPs. With our constant inventiveness and professional graphics for users and consumers, we have managed to see a 41.8% growth in the last year alone. According to me what makes us one of the leaders in IFPs in such a short time is our My View Board software, which we have been constantly updating and upgrading. Our latest launch the My View Board software can be divided into six parts which means six people can view it simultaneously at once. Keeping aside the general IFP specs that it obviously has, it possesses features like Google support wherein you can directly save your file on google i.e. google drive, one drive, etc. The smooth touch interface of the IFP’s (IFP6550/IFP7550/IFP8650 – 65”, 75” and 85” respectively) avoids even a second of lag and the My View Board software allows users to write, highlight, edit and transform documents and images on the screen in real time.”
India is the second largest market in Asia for Audio Visual and systems Integration segment continues to excite the market. Providing his perspective on this exploding Indian AV market as also ViewSonic strategies to cater to the currently growing AV industry, “there has definitely been a close to 30% - 40% growth in the Indian AV market. The private and public sectors have been investing majorly into AV projects and towards providing modern AV infrastructures. This is very positive for us and we foresee a very good opportunity of growth in India” he asserted. “To cater to the increasing demand, we have our chain of national distributors, regional distributors, and resellers who are helping us to cater throughout India. So, our distributors i.e. Creative Peripherals, Ingram Micro, MZ Audio, and WPG import the ViewSonic products directly and then further take care of the distribution of it. We have been following this focused structure of which is one important factor that has helped us achieve the position we have today. We will be continuously working onbringing some new innovative products for the industry to serve better and meet the consumer demand” concluded Ahmad.