Sinotec 'highly competitive' on quality
Over the past few years Sinotec has been creeping up behind its international competitors within the LCD and plasma market with a view to capturing its portion of the market. Despite this, the company has remained relatively quiet when it comes to marketing the brand, leaving some users questioning the reliability of the product.
My Broadband met with Kaveen Jimmy, general manager of Sinotec to discuss the future of the brand and the quality of its LCD and plasma range.
Initially it must be said that Sinotec is the South Africa-based arm of the Prima brand owned by Taiwanese manufacturing giants XOCECO. The LCD and plasma sets that Sinotec sell in South Africa are currently manufactured in Taiwan although in the coming months the company plans to open an assembly plant in the Pretoria area in order to retain a competitive pricing point.
Currently Sinotec produce a range of HD Ready and Full HD LCD units although the company only offers its plasma units in Full HD. According to Jimmy Sinotec is planning to offer most of its product line in Full HD exclusively, because "the price difference between the two technologies is due to come down". This means that one could expect a competitively-priced Sinotec Full HD 32-inch LCD in the coming months.
When questioned about quality Jimmy stressed that the Sinotec product was highly competitive when compared to international brands such as LG, Sony and Samsung. He added that while the larger brands constantly bring out new product ranges that incorporate updated technology, Sinotec "automatically updates within the tech sphere", meaning that although the product line remains the same Sinotec is constantly improving its products behind the scenes.
In terms of unit build Jimmy said that Sinotec does manufacture its own panels but uses externally sourced panels. Although he wouldn’t mention any specific company names Jimmy did say that Sinotec does not use Sony panels or components and sometimes employs CPT panels from Taiwan in their LCD and plasma sets. All Sinotec components, however, are manufactured by Prima in Taiwan.
Jimmy branded Sinotec’s relationship with Prima and CPT as a kind of "technological exchange" and was quick to point out that although the cosmetics of the Sinotec product often remain static it is more important for the company to maintain a more-than-competitive price in the market. Jimmy added that the company would rather "compromise on a comparative product (to international players such as Sony, LG and Samsung) for a more cost effective product", essentially inferring that although Sinotec does not exist to compete with these brands it does offer a cheap and reliable alternative to the consumer.
Affordability is a component to the Sinotec name and this account for the lack of advertising in the past. Jimmy explained that although Sinotec would love to advertise to the extent that the major players do, this cost would have to be incorporated into the total production costs which would in turn make Sinotec’s LCD and plasma units more expensive.
According to industry measurements, by December 2008 Sinotec had captured a healthy 8% of the market in televisions, sitting comfortably behind Sony, Samsung and LG.
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