Waiting for VR to mature before foraying into category: BenQ

Viewer Wise: Taiwanese display solutions company BenQ is waiting for the virtual reality headsets 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 the production of VR headsets.

Noting that there 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 adaptation in the VR category is going to be worth watching.

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

The reason the company is not foraying into the category is that the technology is still in the very much nascent stage, he said, but “the way the 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 the 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 added.

The 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 the big boom in the social media and YouTuber community.

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

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

Consumer Viewing Trends

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

“Towards this, we see a trend of more and more use of projectors rather 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 added.

The 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 the multiplexes.”

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

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

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