EXCLUSIVE: TCL eyes 12% market share in Smart TVs segment in India by 2022-end

Chinese electronics giant TCL is betting big on the Indian market. With the launch of three new smart TV series, the company is eyeing a 12 per cent smart TV market share in India by the end of December 2022.

“Currently we have 6 per cent market share in the country. Our dream is to replace Sony, which is sitting at 12% market share,” Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni, Marketing Head, TCL India told Business Today. According to GFK, Samsung is leading the smart TV market in India followed by LG, Sony and TCL.

TCL is not just making smart TVs in India, but has commenced manufacturing of (display) panels earlier this year. Panels contribute to about 70 per cent cost for smart TVs and had been majorly imported from China. POTPL, TCL CSOT’s largest overseas panel factory outside China, commenced production on February 15 earlier this year and the first shipment was shipped to Samsung India on March 23 as per the company.

“Back in 2018, we got good support from the government of Andhra Pradesh in terms of various aspects and that's the reason why we invested in such a huge factory outside China. The factory is spread across 153 acres of land with an investment of Rs 1,832 crores and will generate direct and indirect employment of 8000. Our panel factory which can make panels from 5-inch to 65 inches across various technologies will have an annual production capacity of 8 million units,” adds Mikkilineni. And of this 8 million panel production capacity, TCL hopes to export panels from India in the future.

To strengthen its market share in India, TCL has forayed into Mini LED TV in India. The C835 New Generation Mini LED 4K Google TV features 144Hz VRR, ONKYO, IMAX Enhanced, Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Atmos, HDR 10+, MEMC, HDMI 2.1. The TV also comes with Google TV and will be available in is 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch for Rs 119,990, Rs 159,990, and Rs 229,990 respectively. However, the company acknowledges that the Mini LED TV will not be volume drives to start with.

Second launch is of the TCL C635 Gaming QLED 4K TV with 120Hz DLG & Game Master with integrated with Wide Color Gamut, 4K HDR, and MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation) to be available in 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch for Rs 44,990, Rs 54,990, Rs 64,990, Rs 85,990 and Rs 149,990 respectively.

The third range is the TCL P735 4K HDR Google TV pushes content options aggregated across streaming services and will be available in 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch at Rs 35,990, Rs 41,990, Rs 49,990 and Rs 69,990 respectively.