Epson to rev up the home projector market

With an eye on the consumer's increasing hunger for advanced home
entertainment solutions, Epson has bolstered its home projector portfolio. Named
the Dreamio series, this wide range of home projectors are built on the company's
proprietary 3LCD technology and incorporates features like wireless and PC-less
projection. The company displayed various technology features at its recent
conference at Thailand and believes that with a convergence inevitable in the
home entertainment space, projectors will find a strong buyer demand. Epson's
impetus in this direction is a part of its '3i' strategy, with projectors
being an integral part of its technology offering in the space of "imaging
on screen". The other i's as earlier outlined by the organization are 'imaging
on paper' and 'imaging on glass'.

According to the company, its main focus will be on its EMP TW200H and
EMP-S1H models and it would target the education sector as well for these
products. "With broadband penetration increasing and more and more content
getting digitized, the demand for high-quality color images and hence these
projectors too will increase," said Akira Suzuki, GM, LCD Product Planning,
Seiko Epson Corporation.

The home projector market in 2004 increased to 19,000 units in APac
(excluding Japan) from 15,000 in 2003. According to the research firm, DTC, this
number is expected to increase five-folds in 2005 to over 1 lakh units and
nearly 2 lakh units in 2006.

Epson currently commands nearly 17% marketshare worldwide in the home
projector and 11.6% in the business projector space. At its regional conference,
the company also asserted the superiority of the 3LCD technology over DLP.
Quoting DTC, the company officials pointed out that 3LCD currently occupies
nearly 70% marketshare in the overall projector business as compared to 30% by
DLP.

(The author was hosted at Thailand by Epson)

GOLDIE

PHUKET, THAILAND