When a monitor becomes a TV

The homegrown approach

Local IT vendor, Optima, entered the television market at the end of last year when it started putting its badge on a 42-inch standard definition set. It has since announced two further high-definition models that it will initially offer through Retravision and the Good Guys.

Televisions are part of a broader move into consumer electronics for Optima, after seeing its IT business model and profitability squeezed in recent times by centralised government purchasing. The company has also released MP3 players, a digital set-top box and a PC designed to run Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition

A range of 20-, 27- and 32-inch LCD TVs are due to be released in the second quarter of 2005, with a 55-inch plasma screen to follow later in the year.

Rear-projection TVs that accept digital input and data projectors using Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology are also planned for later in the year.

While Optima CEO, Cornel Ung, realises his company is jumping into a market where it will be faced with a whole new set of large multinational competitors, he claimed it is leading the pack as far as local players are concerned.

"Local TV players have been hesitant to enter the market for digital display products," he said. "Other local companies, like Palsonic, have entered plasma late and that has given us a chance to be an early adopter. We won't take a lot of market share but at least we have a presence and will be a long-term player."

As with its multinational counterparts, Optima decided to employ separate go-to-market strategies for its televisions and digital display products. While the former goes exclusively to the retail channel through Retravision and the Good Guys, often bundled with its new digital set-top boxes, the latter is available to Australia's largest independent reseller group - Leading Edge Computers - and other IT dealers.

Ung said the strategy was to help IT resellers keep costs down. For those customers that wanted a TV tuner as part of a home entertainment bundle, he estimated dealers could add one into the equation for as little as $15.

Optima recently introduced some basic online training for IT resellers that are interested in selling and supporting its plasma products. Ung said he would eventually like to see more televisions being pushed through the IT channel because that is his company's bread and butter business. However, he predicted TVs would remain in the consumer electronics channel for the foreseeable future.