Multimedia display projector company In Focus Inc is pre-empting a shake out in the industry by attempting to segment its market into three key sectors: the mobile market; the conference room; and the high end market. The Wilsonville, Oregon company wants to avoid the impact of the increase in entrants in its market sector with figures for 1997 showing 74 competitors chasing a market that ships only 300,000 units a year. The industry is worth $2.3bn worldwide, according to US analysts Stanford Resources. By 2000 it will reach 750,000 units or $4bn. The math does not add up commented Robert Judge, director of product marketing at InFocus in the US. Lots of new entrants has put pressure on prices. This has led to market segmentation from our perspective. One projector no longer fits all needs. Different users need different products. The company has seen an erosion in its market share of 4%. In Focus is now concentrating on three segments. Its LitePro 420 product is aimed at the mobile user, and weighs 3.2kg. The second sector, the conference room sector, is most interested in high image quality because users are less able to control the environment in which they are giving a presentation. The LitePro 420 and LitePro products are for these users. The third, high end market is being targeted with the LitePro 1000. The key demands in this market are a wide selection of data/VCR/computer input and output ports. The company on Thursday reported fourth quarter revenues of $96.8m, an increase of 32% over fourth quarter revenues of $73.1m last time. Revenues for the year rose 22% to $315.8m compared to $258.5m in 1996. Fourth quarter net income was $6.6m, up 35% from $4.9m last time. At an industry level the mobile user segment shipped 28,000 units last year; the conference room sector shipped 210,000 units and the fixed auditorium market took the rest.
