India for Audio?

[nightflier]

I just spotted this on EnjoyTheMusic.com:

"On an upbeat note, India's CE market value is to reach $16 billion by 2012 according to Futuresource Consulting. This market grew by more than 30 percent last year to reach $3.8 billion and will continue to grow. 'This rapid growth is being driven by the country's rising levels of disposable income,' says Kanti Thota, Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. 'Its economy is riding a phenomenal growth curve, and with current penetration rates low for most CE products the market opportunities are huge.' In a country inhabited by over one billion people, expanding by 18 million every year plus a swelling middle class population, India is said to be expected to overtake China to become the world's most populated nation by 2030."

Now I know China's been making headway in the Consumer Electronics biz, and it would stand to reason that India would follow, but does anyone know of any products/brands hailing from India?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I just spotted this on EnjoyTheMusic.com:

"On an upbeat note, India's CE market value is to reach $16 billion by 2012 according to Futuresource Consulting. This market grew by more than 30 percent last year to reach $3.8 billion and will continue to grow. 'This rapid growth is being driven by the country's rising levels of disposable income,' says Kanti Thota, Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. 'Its economy is riding a phenomenal growth curve, and with current penetration rates low for most CE products the market opportunities are huge.' In a country inhabited by over one billion people, expanding by 18 million every year plus a swelling middle class population, India is said to be expected to overtake China to become the world's most populated nation by 2030."

Now I know China's been making headway in the Consumer Electronics biz, and it would stand to reason that India would follow, but does anyone know of any products/brands hailing from India?

China is not doing very well in the CE industry at all. They have failed to propagate their home grown HD on disc format to other asian countries. South Korea, Taiwan, and several other asian nations have refused to support CBHD, and have decided to support Bluray instead. China has a laundry list of failed attempts to forge disc formats of their own. EVD has failed, FVD has also failed. Aside from making products that someone else designs, China is about zero in the CE market in terms of design and marketing their own stuff.

Are you speaking of their computer products?

Are you referring to India's own CE products? I know they are into disc manufacturing, but they still rely on Sony, Panasonic, LG and several other japanese companies televisions, DVD's, and to a very small extent, Bluray players.

Considering they still sell alot of black and white televisions, they still have quite a long way to go to get their consumers up to date with display devices. According to Isuppli, they have some infrastructure issues that must be overcome before they can really grow their home based manufacturing of CE. Not to mention that the price levels of most electronics is still out of the badget of most of the Indian people.

[nightflier]

Well I was thinking more of the mid-level and up gear, a notch above CE, if you will. I also was thinking more of audio-only outfits rather than the video, mass market stuff.

By the way, the Chinese gear isn't that dismissable. Several brands have made a small name for themselves by securing European / US based distribution channels and being mentioned in the Western trade rags: Yulong, Qinpu, Yakin, Zhaolu, Tec-On Audio, Dussun, Bada, Bewitch, Xindac, Shanling, Meixing, LFD, Ming Da, Sun Audio, to name a few.

However, it surprised me to hear the same about India, because I can't think of a single name. I'm not saying that this should or should not be the case, but India hasn't exactly been known in this industry. I'd be curious to hear what is actually out there, hailing from the subcontinent. Who knows, there may be some real gems that we haven't even heard of. India certainly has the talent and the manpower to produce it. Anyone out there know of any?

[nightflier]

It's been a couple of weeks since I started this thread, and I've asked around, but nobody seems to know of a single India-based audio manufacturer. I hate to ask the question for fear of insulting posters from India, but are there any? Maybe someone from the old Sun-Never-Sets part of the British diaspora may know of any?

[Rich-n-Texas]

I don't know, but if I start seeing Panda Audio Express stores popping up in the states, I'm moving!

(Not really. I like Chinese food... sometimes)