LG Electronics unveils Smart Home...

With life on the fast lane, what one desires most is convenience. An area where LG Electronics India seems to be making some headway.

At a press conference in the capital yesterday, LG India launched the ‘Digital Network Home', a network of intelligent appliances - Internet-enabled refrigerators, air-conditioners, microwave ovens, washing machines and digital projection TVs - that, through intelligent collaboration and communication, makes one's life … well … convenient.

And how does it achieve that? Actually, there are two ways one could operate the network - through the remote control when one is at home, and from outside of home. In order to connect to one's network (when one is out of gome) or to any individual Internet-enabled product, all one has to do is log on to dreamlg.com. The site facilitates interaction with the Internet-enabled products at home.

When the user issues an instruction, it is carried to the host PC, which in the case of the network is the refrigerator. The information reaches the refrigerator through a modem wired to it. The refrigerator then transmits or forwards the information through the PLC technology; in other words, communicates with the other Internet appliances through power lines. The modem connected to that particular appliance then digitises the electric signals received from the refrigerator and performs the job. While the technology sounds complicated, the possibilities of using the Digital Network are many and simple, assert company sources.

However, all this convenience comes at a very inconvenient price. While the entire Digital Home Network comes at a total cost of Rs 7 lakh, the price break up of the individual products is no less expensive. The microwave oven is priced at Rs 25,000; the one-tonne air conditioner at Rs 40,000; the front-loading and top-loading washing machines cost between Rs 30,000-Rs 35,000; the digital projection TV is pegged between Rs 60,000 and Rs 70,000; and the refrigerator, the host in this network, at Rs 4.5 lakh.

Given the exorbitant pricing, is there a market for such products in India? Well, that is not the immediate concern for LG. The idea, reiterate company executives, is to build a strong association with cutting edge technology. "The market is small and the people who would like to use these products have to be tech savvy. Our objective is not volumes. Our objective is to upgrade our image. We want to be a dominant brand across all categories and simultaneously create a premium image in the market place," says Ganesh Mahalingam, head, sales and marketing, LG. And because the market is small, the company is spending just about a crore on print advertisements.

As part of its focus on high-end home products in the year 2003, LG India has also launched a premium range of home appliances. These products include Ice Beam Door cooling refrigerator, Direct Drive washing machine, Solar Dome microwave oven, 3-Way air throw air-conditioners and Mirrored spilt air-conditioners. "We have been the number one in all the categories except refrigerators and washing machines. According to the latest ORG-Marg data, we have climbed up to the number one position in the washing machine category and currently hold the third slot in refrigerators," adds Mahalingam. Growing at this rate, LG hopes to achieve a turnover target of Rs 5,000 crore in 2003. © 2003 agencyfaqs!