Dubai:
TV and camera sales have taken a back seat for no reasons despite retailers offering much better prices than last year.
Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO of Emax Electronics, said that TV sales have been slow as there isn’t any mega or sporting event to boost sales.
“Discarding the old model or replacing it with bigger screen sizes is not a necessity for people. It is not a compulsory spend. TVs are not an item for tourists and they don’t carry those with them. I haven’t seen much of the tourists at the event, may be they will come during the weekend,” he said.
Nadeem Khanzadah, head of omnichannel retail at Jumbo Group, also said that TV sales are much lower than last year without a reason.
Some retailers have cut TV prices by around 40 per cent for some models and by around 64 per cent for some camera models, including the bundle offers.
Hisense is selling a 55-inch Dh9,999 4K TV for Dh5,499, while other major brands have reduced prices by around Dh5,000 for top-end models, apart from the freebies.
But for Plug Ins, TV sales have been good and better than last year.
“The positive difference this year is in panels. Camera sales have been very weak and even lower than last year,” said Omar Abushaban, general manager for Plug-Ins.
Deepak Babani, CEO of Eros Group, said that demand for TVs has decreased due to the strong penetration rates of smartphones and tablets. So people are not keen to invest so much on UHD or 4K TVs, and 4K content is also not available, apart from the user-created content. Once the 4K content is available, the demand for 4K TVs will increase.
