LG’s curved TV brings cinema home

Hyderabad: While all of us enjoy watching movies at a theatre, not many of us are aware that these mammoth screens have curved display.

So, how about bringing that movie-watching pleasure home? Betting big on its newly launched 55-inch curved OLED television worth Rs 9,99,000, the South Korean manufacturer hopes that the new TVs will boost its flat panel display (FPD) segment.

“Flat panels are our growth engines and we expect this to reach 30 per cent by the end of next year,” said Rajneesh Sharma, regional manager of AP, LG India. The company is also working on newer versions of the curved display TVs, he added.

The flat panel TV market in India is expected to touch the $6.39 billion mark by 2015, says Frost & Sullivan research. The FPD TV market which in 2012 stood at $3.55 billion, is likely to grow at a CAGR pf 21.7 per cent by 2015. The total market in terms of consumption for such TVs stood at 6.48 million units, while the total domestic manufacturing was 1.93 million units in 2012.

Another report by IHS on FPDs says that South Korea’s Samsung and LG still lead as global TV manufacturers. Samsung, the world’s number one TV maker, accounted for 19 per cent of all shipments in the sector, followed by LG with 14 per cent while Sony and TCL of China had six per cent of the market, followed by Toshiba and Hisense with five per cent.

Given that flat panels are replacing cathode ray tube (CRT) television sets, with the availability of easy financing options, increasing power of consumer purchases and new technological innovations, LG India said it has phased out CRT TVs for India, except for some other markets in the world.

“We have phased out all the CRT models of TVs and India is seeing shift from LCDs to LEDs, 3D and smart TVs,” said Sharma, adding that this growing market has helped the company in bringing its curved OLED TVs to India.

The data from Frost & Sullivan said that the growing upper middle class has already moved to LCD TVs from CRT and is now driving the shift to LED TVs. However, the rural population will be a greater source of LCD television demand till 2015.