ViewSonic targets #1 slot by '08

S Gopikrishna Chennai, Sep 22

The US premium brand ViewSonic is entering the Indian market with much
fanfare. Though, ViewSonic monitor products have been available in India for
quite sometime, the company is now setting up shop here and getting serious in
the business. “We want to become the number one brand (in display segment)
here and will do it by the end of 2007 or early 2008. It is just a matter of
time before we catch up in the market,” said Gautam Ghosh, Country Manager,
ViewSonic Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd.

The company is very confident about making it big here since it has a wide
range of industry-leading products. ViewSonic claims to be the number one brand
in many places in the US, Europe and Asia continents. Replying to a question on
its late entry and competition in the Indian market, Ghosh said, “Competition
is everywhere. When we entered markets like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China,
Korea, Australia and New Zealand, it is not that there was no competition
(competitor). But, ViewSonic emerged as the strong/preferred brand within a
short span of time. That demonstrates ViewSonic's product range, technical
capabilities and focus in the market. In fact, in Korea (where display giants
like LG and Samsung are headquartered) we achieved the number two position
within the first six months,” he asserted.

Like any other vendor, ViewSonic is banking on channels for its success in
Indian shores. The company has already got national distributors such as Roop
Technology Pvt Ltd, Priya Ltd and Redington (India), in place. Redington is a
new alliance for ViewSonic, which is just three-months old. “Now, we are in
the process of appointing sub-distributors in class A, B and C cities, with the
help of national distributors. We will appoint three-four sub-distributors in
major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. And
two partners each in class B and C cities like Chandigarh, Jaipur, Guwahati,
Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore, to name a few. In all, we will have
more than 100 sub-distributors across the country,” detailed Ghosh.

ViewSonic is also making a foray into the retail market. The company is in
talks with major retail chains focusing on lifestyle, IT and consumer
electronics products. “India's retail business is exploding and we are
looking for opportunities in every space. ViewSonic will try to get window-space
in every corner, be it shopping malls, theatres, airports, hotels and other
public joints to get maximum visibility and brand recall in the market,” he
informed. The company is also investing a significant amount of money on channel
promotional activities, trainings and other programs.

ViewSonic will form a SI forum shortly to tap the opportunities in the
solutions space. Last month, ViewSonic made a record business of $1 million in
India, selling more than 5,200 units. The company hopes to double this number
every month and clinch the number one position in the large and wide format
monitors shortly.

“India is getting into a matured market now, investing on upgrading
lifestyle. And we feel this is the right time to penetrate the market,” he
added. Currently, ViewSonic sells CRT and LCD monitors in the ratio of 70:30,
which will become 50:50 by Q3 2007.