LG overtakes Sony in flat television sales

India: Flat panel television market is seeing some changes as South Korean electronics giant LG has pushed Sony to third position in this segment. Sony has been focusing on premium television segment and is emphasizing on values rather than volumes of televisions.

Sony has also downsized its product portfolio in the country following the intense competition in smartphones, which has cannibalized Sony’s digital camera revenue and has affected its smartphone business. Samsung is the market leader in India’s television market, accounting for the 30% of the total value market and 27% volume share. LG came second and it held a volume share of 18% compared to Sony’s 18%, LG also overtook in value share by a small margin of 1% in the country.

Sony has been cutting its marketing expenditure and company offered voluntary retirement to its entire smartphone team following the shrink in its market share in smartphones category; which once stood at 3% and fell to 1% last year.

According to TechSci Research, India presents a lot of opportunities to grow in this segment as the country is registering modest GDP growth and seeing rapid urbanization. However, slipping to third position in flat television market is a setback for Japanese electronic giant Sony, which once had a big presence in digital camera market in India; and it is now largely dependent on televisions. Relying on just one product may hit the company’s revenue growth in India as television sales get a boost when there is a major sport event, which does not happen every year. However, the company can get a boost as it is working on categories like PlayStation gaming consoles, headphones and personal audio.