Philips to widen footprint in India, China

Bangalore, Sep 7 (UNI) Consumer electronics major Royal Philips Electronics (RPE) will take up a major drive to increase its presence in countries like India, China, Brazil and Russia by offering newer next generation products, Philips Consumer Electronics Chief Executive Officer Rudy Provoost said today.

Speaking to newspersons here on the tenth anniversary of Philips Innovation Campus (PIC), which developed nearly 50 per cent of software for its consumer electronic products worldwide, he said ''We are targetting high sales in these big countries, which are witnessing an economic boom. Now our focus is to enhance product portfolio by offering next generation products in Flat and LCD televisons, home theatres and other entertainment solutions, apart from medical and healthcare equipment.'' The newest offerings from the Dutch company in the visual entertainment arena was the Blue Ray technology in the emerging HDVD platform, which was expected to become the next big thing in the home entertainment sector. The company had also recently released a new triple CD writer for the IT industry, he said.

Terming PIC as the brain factory of innovation, Mr Provoost said RPE looked at India as the ultimate destination to develop software that supported its newer technologies and PIC, which employed nearly 1,700 highly skilled professionals, would be the major hub of innovation activities. The company would soon offer to share new technologies developed at PIC with other global companies, he added.

''This site will reflect what Philips stands for -- a perfect mixture of perfection and innovation. PIC has produced four patents last year and 13 so far this year and we are targetting to produce seven more by the year-end. Rightly, we have located our new and ambitious NXP Semiconductors in this campus,'' he said.

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