Many observers in the industry have long predicted the television’s eventual death driven in part by a rapid migration by pay TV providers (including fiber and satellite-based companies) to Internet standards for both video content and services and by the enthusiastic response of consumers to a growing number of Internet-based alternatives. These include Roku, as well as Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, SlingTV, Sony, HBO and many others.
Consumers, especially younger ones, are interested in defining their own video experience, mixing traditional and self-produced content and enjoying it not just on televisions but on every connected device, including tablets, smart phones and other mobile gadgets.
But like everything in life there are exceptions. India, is one such exception and Goa even more so. Felipe Alvares of Prime Electronics in Panjim believes Internet TV will become big in the days ahead. He said the smart TV with the 3D facility would be out of the market very soon. The future he believed was Internet TV but that would entirely depend on the Internet speed available in the State. He admitted that speeds were not where they ought to be, but in the future, the situation would certainly improve.
He said “Internet TV will evolve, any TV without a smart capability will not survive. Now the cost of a smart TV, I mean the high end TV is around Rs 80,000 and above. In a year or so, it will drop to Rs 40-50,000. Look at Apple TV, they are already preparing themselves, it is popular in the west and here once the Internet speed improves it will take off.”
The TV screen as we know, he believed would disappear. This he believed would happen in the next 10-20 years with holograms taking over. The TV set as we know it would become smart and one could be able to control the house if one wanted to. With regards present high-end TV’s and the exorbitant cost he countered by saying they were usually future proof for at least 5 years because they were usually upgraded because now they were accessing the internet through the dongle.
Felipe however threw some water when asked if the high-end smart TV’s had a big market in Goa. He said “Goa will take much longer than the rest of India to adapt to the technology for the simple reason, most of our white goods outlets are driven by the owner and not by a salesmen who has been trained in the relevance of the technology. Many of the owners will phoo phoo the new technology and drive the customer towards the known.”
A player in the Indian market, Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO and Director, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), Kodak TV India felt that as a manufacturer televisions would not go out of style but would evolve to match the needs of the customer.
Mr Marwah said “With Smart TV’s in play, we see customer purchasing televisions for the purposes of browsing/watching movies/downloading apps etc and not only for the purposes of watching television through cable connections/digital service providers. A laptop/phone screen will never suffice the need of a ‘big screen’ as laptops are getting smaller in screen sizes for want of portability and mobile phones can only increase screen sizes to a limit to continue to perform their main purposes. The next steps going forward will be to make the flat screen, flatter and increase modes of use of the Smart TV. The television will evolve to survive.”
With regards developments in the technology, he believed the television had reached the stage of being curved and henceforth developments would be made in the form of translucent/transparent /foldable TV screens which were still in research phases. 4K/8K technology, he said was also being developed but has limited use for the masses since not all television content was available in the format.
Sudhir Satardekar, manager at Shetye Sales, Panjim believed technology would evolve but the TV would remain. He said “The Internet speed will improve, we are using Wi-Fi now but later it will be without a set top box , people will recharge and watch online in the future. There will be more alternatives, I believe that.”
The LED market he claimed in Goa was around 2000 every month and people would snap up high technology lead television sets. Another dealer, Nitin of Marudhar agency believed the wave of really smart TV’s is certainly coming. Picture quality and a transition from CRT (cathode ray tube) were due. In addition TV sets with touch screen facilities would be available very soon and would be common. Goa he believed would have a market for such high-end units. However he ended by saying it was all in the Internet speed.
