Will LeEco have an upper hand in selling LED TVs in India?

LeTV, now LeEco, has managed to create a strong presence in India ever since it commenced its business in the country last year. It has only been a few months since it started rolling out its smartphone range and in a span of six months, it has become one of the most popular Chinese OEMs in India. Now although it seems that the company is primarily into selling smartphones, its core expertise is content. According to Atul Jain, COO, LeEco India, “We are providing hardware (smartphones) as just a tool to spread our content and that’s the reason why we sell them comparatively cheaper than big established OEMs.” The company’s roots have always revolved around content, Le.com became one of the first online video websites to gain profits in 2007 and LeTV went on to become the first online video company to go public through IPO. Eventually the company started focusing on the biggest screen that almost every household has, the television. It started off with the first Le Super TV the LeTV 818 in China which was succeeded by a more advanced version in 2012. According to the company the Le Super TVs saw a phenomenal response in China with orders surpassing what Samsung India sells in one year. While it only sells smartphones outside its home country, it seems that LeEco is finally going to bring its Le Super TV range to other countries. The company recently tweeted saying “We’re putting the TV front and center, in more ways than one. Join us on Tues. 7/26 for a very special announcement,” clearly pointing out the launch of its TV range. We are assuming that it will be a global announcement with the India launch happening soon after that. https://twitter.com/LeEcoGlobal/status/755152712640102400 The launch of LeEco’s TV range in India would be a big blow for brands like Samsung, Sony and LG as they only sell LED TVs based on hardware with lesser focus on the ecosystem and content. LeEco currently bundles apps which include video content packages on its smartphones. The same apps are expected to be available on the new TV range as a part of the ecosystem, add that to a low cost and what you get is a better package. If LeEco does bring the Le Super TV to India in the coming one or two months, it will beat its Chinese competitor Xiaomi since it still hasn’t managed to bring its popular Mi TV to India due to couple of reasons including customs as well as content partnerships.