Sharp eyes Indian mkt with innovative products

Mumbai, Apr 19: Sharp India Ltd, a subsidiary of Sharp Corporation of Japan, is agressively targeting the Indian market with its new line of products in the LCD TV, microwave oven and refrigerators segment based on the plasma cluster technolgy, which helps in mitigating the air-borne micro-organisms like bacteria, mold, fungi and even bird flu virus H5N1.

Speaking at the launch of these products in Mumbai today, company's general manager (sales) Hiroshi Sasaoka said, ''the market potential in India for these products is tremendous, with the LCD TVs likely to take over 50 per cent of the conventional TV India's share of the 36 million global LCD TV production globally is around 60,000 and this is likely to grow to around 250,000 by 2008, Mr Sasaoka said.

Currently, it is the institutional buyers like the corporate houses, hotels and hospitals who buy these products, but with substantial growth in the rich, upper middle class and middle-middle class, consumption for these products will increase three fold, he added.

Talking to sources regarding the late entry in this segment in Indian market, Mr Sasaoka said, ''Since the recall value for sharp products in India was small, so we had to first reconstruct our base and improve our brand image. But with the 'Aquous' brand of television sharp having been already established in the market, it would be easy to build on that image.'' Elaborating on competition, especially the ace generation collaboration announced between Sony and Samsung, Mr Sasaoka said, ''Sharp's new ace generation plant with an investment of US Dollar 1.2 billion and another Rs 1.5 billion for the upgradation of technology, Sharp is half a step ahead compared to Sony and Samsung, when it comes to manufacturing and operations if not technology.'' ''The uniqueness of Sharp's LCD Aquous tv's is their low electricity consumption, and their ecological friendliness - use of recycled plastic and paper components. Also the plasma cluster ion technology in the refrigerators and airconditioners purifies the air-borne micro organism by releasing positive and negative ions in the air.

This technology is effective against 26 kinds of harmful airborne substances including bacteria, mold, fungi, viruses and allergens.

Effectiveness has most recently been confirmed for highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza or bird flu as it is commonly known,'' company's divisional manager, Mahendra Jain claimed.

UNI