Convergence Plus Journal

NEW DELHI -- Taiwan based BenQ Corp., a spin-off from Acer, is an industry leader in networked lifestyle devices with an expertise encompassing display, storage, imaging, wireless and broadband areas. The firm has manufacturing plants in Malaysia, Mexico, China and Taiwan. It has 13,000 employees worldwide, supporting a strong global sales marketing and service network spanning the Asia Pacific region, Europe and the Americas.

BenQ has R&D facilities in Taiwan (Hsinchu lab), China (Suzhou Software Development Center) and California, USA (Wireless Technology Center), and has over 2,000 R&D personnel in Suzhou, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and San Diego. The firm has amassed nearly 1,000 global patents, and has over 1,290 patents pending. Its revenue touched US$3bn last year.

A market leader across various product lines, BenQ had an 8.2 percent share in LCD monitors, 4.1 percent in CRT monitors, 8 percent in storage, 16.8 percent in scanners, 3 percent in projectors and 4 percent in mobile phones in 2002.

Convergence plus recently met up with Rick Lei, vice president and general manager, sales operations, Robert Dung, managing director and Ashish Bakshi, country head - India operations, to find out more about BenQ's strategies for India. Excerpts from an interview:

CP: Can we know a bit more about BenQ's background?

Rick Lei: We were a part of Acer and got spun off from Acer Communications 18 months ago. We are currently focusing on networked digital lifestyle devices. Financially, we have been performing quite well. Our revenues hit US$3bn last year and will likely hit US$4bn in 2003.

CP: You have several mobile phones to offer to the Indian audience. How have you been performing in this particular segment?

RL: Yes, we have several models of mobile phones. Acer earlier manufactured some of those. We now produce under the BenQ brand. We hit a manufacturing volume of 16mn units last year. It was around 7-8mn units in 2001. This year, we will likely touch 20mn units. We are catering to the OEMs and still doing OEM production for Motorola. Our profits are more on the regional basis.

In India, we are going to focus on GSM/GPRS models. We have seven to eight different models that we plan to sell here. These sleek GSM phones use Li-ion batteries. We have also done some CDMA phones for South American countries.

CP: Are your GSM phones equipped with colour screens? How about introducing smartphones?

RL: As we said, we are focusing on GSM phones in India. We need to study the current market and the consumer behaviour patterns before introducing our phones. We have introduced GSM phones with colour screens in Taiwan. We plan to introduce these and smartphones by the fourth quarter of this year as we fell that it is still too early for the India market.

CP: Coming back to CDMA phones, how do you see the market developing in Asia?

RL: We feel that CDMA is finding it tough to move in the other countries, barring the United States. It has an even tougher job in China, where it is up against GSM. Besides, the Xiaolingtong, or PHS service in China is coming up very well. Users also need to move on to using data services, though voice still accounts for nearly 99 percent of revenues. Data applications for mobile phones need to be developed much better. There is no killer application as of now.

CP: You also have a range of broadband products. Do you have any immediate plans for India?

RL: Yes, we do have WLAN products, SOHO routers, switches and ADSL modems. Though we feel that broadband is still a nascent stage in India, we are looking for partners in the WLAN segment.

CP: What are your plans for the Indian market for your broad range of IT and telecom products?

Ashish Bakshi: We are totally committed to the Indian market. We are currently looking at channels to build up our brand awareness. We will be doing our product launches in a phased manner.

We intend to launch CDR media, LCD monitors, LCD TVs, and DVD players in this quarter. We have been currently selling 15- and 17-inch LCDs, and would like to introduce 19- and 21-inch models as well. In monitors, we will introduce 19- and 21-inch models, as we have been selling 17-inch models so far.

We plan to launch our Joybooks and mobile phones during the third quarter of this year. We will first do a complete study before pitching in our products.

CP: Who are your channel partners for IT related products in India?

AB: We have Maxtone and Roop Technologies in Mumbai, and Micromax in New Delhi as our channel partners. We have recently joined hands with Savex Computers. We have tied up with Godrej for projectors. BenQ is a lifestyle digital equipment company. We are trying to figure out the best partners for certain, if not all, product categories.

CP: How much do you plan to invest in India?

Robert Dung: We are trying to invest US$2mn in India. Most of it will be directed toward channel partners, dealer incentives and product launches, as well as for media and marketing activities.

Contact:
BenQ India Pvt. Ltd.
Tel: +91-22-2570-5230
Fax: +91-22-2570-5235
Email: ashishbakshi@benq.com
Web: www.benq.co.in

Robert Dung, Managing Director, BenQ.

Rick Lei, vice president and general manager, sales operations, BenQ.

Ashish Bakshi, country head - India operations, BenQ.

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