As vendor sees significant sales growth in projector market, rival distributors pour water on its achievement

As vendor Toshiba claims an 85 per cent sales growth in the short throw projector market, rivals have questioned the veracity of these figures and pledged to hit back.

A report from market researcher Context shows Toshiba making significant gains in the projector sales market. Its Sales Watch Distribution data chart has Toshiba leaping from 20th place in the second quarter of this year, to sixth in the third quarter, significantly narrowing the gap on market leaders Epson, Infocus and BenQ.

But the success of the vendor has been called into question by distributors of rival products.

Stuart Mizon, business manager for AV products at distributor Midwich, said: “This is all down to a single deal it struck with Steljes, which has signed as an exclusive distributor for the short throw projectors and subsequently taken on a lot of kit,” he explained. “The figures do not relate to end user sales.”

However, Mark Bird, Steljes’ group sales director, responded: “We worked specifically with Toshiba to develop a bespoke short throw projector to our specifications.

“We wanted a product that used second-generation digital light processing, to satisfy the huge demand for high-colour representation. And it has been positively welcomed by the market.”