The domestic microwave ovens market, one of the fastest growing segments in the entire consumer durables industry, is all set to witness intense competition in the coming months.
Both the market leader LG Electronics and the second-rung Samsung, which together account for nearly 60 per cent of the total market, have unveiled a slew of new models in the past few weeks with the hope of riding the festive wave to till the year-end.
To kick-start the new drive, Samsung launched four new models to take the total strength of its product portfolio to 10, followed by LG, which has the lion's share of the microwave oven pie at 40 per cent, rolling out some never-seen-before premium models last week.
The price tag on one of the new LG models is nearly double the costliest item on offer by its closest competitor Samsung. And the reason behind the 'model war' is not difficult to seek.
According to the ORG GFK figures, the first eight months of this year saw the number of such ovens grow up a whopping 98.3 per cent to 2.17 lakh units, and the growth was led by the premium, 'convection', segment that zoomed around 128 per