Digital signage: The signs are everywhere

Vendors are turning their attention to business-to-business offerings which include business grade screens, projectors and media players.

The hardware is widely used for in-store marketing across a variety of vertical sectors including retails, transportation, healthcare and government.

When Hitachi folded its CE division in Australia, Dipak Kumar, general manager, Electronic Components Group at Hitachi told CRN that the company was going through a global restructuring.

“The CE division was the only division at Hitachi in Australia to be affected by the global restructure. At this stage we can only say that the decision was made due to a global restructure,” said Kumar.

He said Hitachi’s head office will start to concentrate on areas where it feels it doesn't have much of a presence.

“We want to ramp up the B2B division in Australia. This includes specialist products like business-grade LCD screens and projectors,” said Kumar.

NEC also recently bowed out of the low-end LCD monitor market. Daniel Hancox, national channel manager of NEC’s newly consolidated Commercial Display Solutions division said the vendor will now be able to concentrate its efforts on the products that provide the best quality for customers and the most profit for their distribution channel as well as NEC itself.

Independent research group, Frost and Sullivan conducted an analysis of key market drivers, restraints and challenges facing the digital signage systems market.

The research service titled World Digital Signage Markets, released in October 2007, examined trends in the digital signage market in the following regions - North America, Latin America and APAC.

According to Frost and Sullivan, the Asia Pacific region holds significant potential for digital signage as countries in the region are making rapid strides in their digital signage deployments. For instance, governments in China, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand have already made major investments in adopting digital signage, or are in the process of finalising deals.

The report states, “key applications include public notices, real-time weather and forecasts, public television while waiting in government agency premises, propaganda through documentary films, and so on. The retail sector is also emerging as a major driver for growth in Asia and key markets include Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, and India. In Malaysia and Hong Kong, most upcoming shopping malls are actively considering digital signage at the design stage itself”.