Forgotten Crown plunges into low-end TV segment

bangalore: stung by several reverses, crown television was pushed to the background in the television market over the last decade even as korean majors lg, samsung and indian kingpin bpl drove home the advantage. wiser today, the television company has sharpened its technical knowhow, introduced a wider range of products and has decided to venture aggressively into the lower end segment.crown television director manubhai jhaveri told the times of india that the company had launched 13 new models, including five black & white (b/w) tvs, in a bid to augment its market presence. crown, which claims to have a 3 per cent market share, has plans to double its sales in the next four months. crown television manufactures 1.20 lakh b/w and ctvs a year at its factory in noida. "we want to have a complete product range capable of making deep in-roads in the rs 7,000-rs 15,000 segment. we do not have any high-end models," he said. jhaveri said that crown had a technical collaboration with nec, japan, which broke down. "since then we have tried to develop our technical knowhow. the array of products which have been launched is a clear indication of the hard work the company has put into research and development," he said. explaining crown's fall in the last decade, jhaveri said that multinational tv manufacturers had deep pockets and the back up of a variety of white good products such as washing machines, refrigerators, airconditioners and microwave ovens. "crown had only its televisions to fall back upon. this acted as a constraint," he admitted. with the new products crown plans to turn its fortunes around. "our modest price range will do the trick for us," jhaveri said.