Most laser MFD offerings are positioned across these four speed variants and a typical entry level starts from Rs 10-12,000; high end models can go up to Rs 2.5 lakh. On the technology side of things, vendors offer two kinds of product offerings based on printer-based and copier-based (also called digital copiers). While the printer-based MFDs have regular cartridges, the copier-based MFDs are drum and toner based, wherein the toner is re-filled once consumed. In the lower end there is more printer-based technology used, while at the higher end of the spectrum, it's the copier technology.

Monitors: Year of the LCD
LCDs were once considered a luxury. But going by the performance of LCDs during 2005-06, it has had an impressive escalation. In terms of market trends, vendors cite two significant shifts in the monitor space. One, users went in for larger screen sizes on CRT: the 17-inch CRTs found their way into home and SOHO segments, cashing in on the affordable price points. On the enterprise side, the new monitor buying decisions took to LCDs instead of CRTs. This is mainly due to the crash in end user prices. For instance, LCD monitor prices breaching the sub Rs 10,000 mark impacted the volumes in a positive way. Industry estimates peg total LCD monitor shipments during 2005-06 at eight lakh units. Moreover, another distinct trend is CRT monitors hitting the plateau. For instance, when we do a growth comparison between CRT and LCD, things become rather obvious. The CRT segment grew by 23% while the LCD grew by a whopping 184%. End-user prices of LCD monitors dropped by 15% over the year, which is the key to soaring volumes.

R Manikandan, general manager, sales and marketing (IT Division), LG Electronics India says, "The entire world is moving toward larger screen size monitors and Indian enterprises are also fast catching up. While old analog monitors are still being used largely, we are seeing large enterprises migrating to LCDs."

If we look at the size wise monitor consumption patterns, market share of the 15-inch CRT was around 56% and the 17-inch around 44%. Here the vendors are seeing a decrease in the share of the 15-inch CRTs and escalation of 17-inch screen sizes. On the LCD monitor space, the bigger market right now is for the 15-inch screen sizes, estimated at around 60%. The rest of the LCD pie was shared by the 17 and 19-inch screen sizes.

Scanners: Flattening Out
Here is one segment of the IT peripherals space where things are slowing down. The typical onslaught of MFDs is putting the brakes on the growth of scanners. The market size for scanners is estimated at 157,973 units valued at Rs 105 crore during 2005-06, a decline of 9% in unit terms. The bigger market is for flatbed scanners and, in recent times, production scanners are also gaining ground for high-end scanning. HP dominates the scanner market with a market share of 53.7% followed by players like UMAX, Canon and Microtek. Going forward, entry level scanners will thin down in terms of volumes as target customers go the MFD way. The market will be driven by mid-to-high end scanners, that will in turn be driven by consumers looking for high-end scanning requirements.

Shrikanth G
shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in

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