Waiting for VR to mature before foraying into category: BenQ

Viewer Wise: Taiwanese display solutions company BenQ is waiting for virtual reality hesets category to mature before looking to have a range of products in that category.

This comes amid a notable shift in categories like e-sports and gaming, and BigTech players Apple and Meta foraying into production of VR hesets.

Noting that re has been a rise in consumers opting for displays and projectors for personal entertainment and content creation, Rajeev Singh, MD, BenQ India and South Asia said consumer aptation in VR category is going to be worth watching.

“ most interesting thing going forward would remain how aptation of VR technology takes place in consumer space,” Singh said while speaking to Republic Business.

reason company is not foraying into category is that technology is still in very much nascent stage, he said, but “ way technology is progressing is very interesting,” he noted.

As post-pandemic habits of consumers turn much more digital, this has converted to a CAGR of 35 to 40 per cent on a year-on-year basis for last three years, Singh said.

A driver for this demand is an increased traction for flat panels, used in Business to Business (B2B) use cases such as classrooms and conference rooms for teaching and meeting applications, he ded.

growth is expected to increase by 20 per cent in 2024 in consolidated terms and is expected to reach 25 per cent in terms of market share.

Shift in Use Cases

But a significant shift is now visible in monitors for graphic design and professional photography, Singh said, which is aided by big boom in social media and YouTuber community.

“re has been a big boom in se two particular segments in monitor business - coding or programming segment on one side and graphic design and professional photography on or side,” Singh pointed.

reason for this, he said, is requirement for using special monitors for post-production work on content y create, to work on it and refine same.

Consumer Viewing Trends

Singh said consumer trends are definitely shifting more and more towards personal entertainment and entertainment-on--go, which is not limited to a particular space etc.

“Towards this, we see a trend of more and more use of projectors rar than just TV's for entertainment at home, because projectors is a much more versatile device which can be carried from room to room or while going out,” he ded.

rise in projector consumption, he said, is also attributed to a demand for more and more high-end projectors “because people no longer want to go and watch movies in multiplexes.”

Based on this, company estimates for its projector business to comprise 32 per cent of overall market.

In terms of monitors, consumers are shifting to sizes above 24-inch for ir home and office applications, with larger screen sizes, higher resolutions and better colour-performing monitors, Singh said.

ir share in overall monitor business on e-commerce site Amazon is over 15 per cent, BenQ said, making it among top three brands on platform.