BenQ plans to heat up India’s home projector market with “game-changer” Laser TV Projector

Spurred by consumer demand, Taiwanese brand BenQ is gearing to launch its 4K UHD ultra-short throw Laser TV home projector (V6000/V6050) in India. The Laser TV projector’s main highlight is that it is intended to replace – and be used like – a TV on your cabinet.

“A projector is an addition to the TV at home right now. For the first time, we will have projectors replacing at least large size TVs at home, in many of the settings, especially the living room,” Rajeev Singh, Managing Director, BenQ India told Financial Express Online.

The ultra-short throw laser projector comes with an anti-light reflection screen, which means that it absorbs the light coming from the top and reflects the light coming from the bottom, making it useful across different lighting conditions. Put simply, there is no need to dim the lights when using it.

“I think it will change the way projectors are used at home.”

The projector market, though it is still far from becoming mainstream, is growing steadily in India. Even more so in the last one year. It is one of those emerging product categories that is seeing a steep rise in popularity despite Covid-led disruption, and going forward, it is set to become even more exciting, Singh said.

“A lot of people are buying “home” projectors now, because they can really use it more since they are spending more time at home. Options outside are limited. And again, things are not going to go back to the same normal scenario in the next few years, because of the change of habits in the wake of the pandemic. I think there will be a big change happening in the use of projectors at home, and it will continue to be like that.”

There is growing demand for 4K projectors and a new category of “portable” projectors is evolving simultaneously.

BenQ specialises in display technology. It is at the forefront of visual experience, something it likes to call “Visuality”, with three distinct product lines – monitors, interactive flat panels and of course, projectors. The pandemic has come as a blessing in disguise, Singh said, ushering in a new era of sorts for the company wherein for the first time in its history, B2C business surpassed B2B sales.

“Almost two thirds of our business was B2B before the pandemic. Now, almost 80% of our business is B2C. Our entire buying demand has shifted to the consumer segment, however, that has been a big plus for us, because the demand has been so humongous that overall, we are doing much more business now as compared to before pandemic,” Singh said.

Projectors are getting exciting no doubt, but most of them are also quite expensive, something that could play spoilsport for BenQ’s vision to accelerate the category.

“The reason for that is, there is very heavy duty on projectors. So, if you talk about high-end home projectors, there is a 10% customs duty and there is a 28% GST. That is almost 40% taxation.”

And the current size of the market is so small – apparently, less than 300k units are sold every year – that making in India does not make sense for now.

“In India, the market penetration for devices like smartphones and TVs is big and it is very deeply penetrated, but market size for projectors is still not big enough. That is one of the main reasons why Make in India is not commercially viable (for projectors),” Singh said.

Changing consumer lifestyle and demand, fuelled by some of the new-age initiatives that BenQ is taking, for instance, making its products also available from Reliance Digital and Croma, should speed up the momentum though. At least, that is what BenQ would be hoping.