Demand for flat screen TV continues to surge across Southeast Asia

The constant evolution and innovation in the world of TV technology have been successfully fueling consumer demand and driving consistent growth in the industry over the last few years. In the Southeast Asia region, flat panel TVs have continued to register a surge in demand in 2012, selling over 8.3 million units in the first eleven months of the year and reflecting a 26 per cent volume growth over the same period the previous year.

LCD is the most sought after TV type across the region, making up more than nine out of ten sets purchased by Southeast Asian consumers. Four of the six markets tracked by GfK - Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia registered 10 to 70 per cent spike in sales quantity of LCD TV in the respective countries.

"The total LCD TV market across the region increased by 13 per cent over last year, spurred largely by the strong demand of LED TVs which contributed to a significant chunk of the LCD TV pie," said Gerard Tan, Account Director for Digital Technology, GfK Asia. "The developing countries are getting more exposed to the advantages of this newer TV technology and its consumers are increasingly demanding for it."

Indonesia is the largest and also fastest growing market, thanks to the population's ongoing high rate of conversion from the traditional CRT TV. Nearly 2.9 million sets of LCD TVs were sold in January to November 2012; 68 per cent more than a year ago. While in the Singapore market on the other hand, 77 per cent of all flat panel TVs sold were LED TVs with the rest being Plasma TVs.

"Consumers in the region are willing to splurge on TVs, having spent over USD 3 billion on LCD TVs last year-13 per cent more compared to the year before," highlighted Tan. "One of the key drivers of the strong sales is greater affordability due to price erosion attributed to keen competition among major brands, and the introduction of more advanced technologies, for instance, Internet-content, 3D etc."

According to findings, Internet-content and 3D TVs are progressively gaining grounds with all the six markets reflecting sales growth. While one in every ten (11%) sets of TV sold in the region last year had the Internet content feature, 3D TVs formed around 7 per cent of all flat screen TV sales.

"The latest cutting edge TV technologies introduced by major brands are the 4K and OLED TVs which received much attention during the recent Consumer Electronics Show," highlighted Tan. "However, with the current economic outlook in the region, consumers are likely to be exercising more caution in spending on big ticket items such as these upmarket TVs. Nevertheless, we foresee the overall TV market to continue remaining buoyant in 2013, attributable to the continued switchover process in the developing markets," he concluded.-Asia One (January 22, 2013)