A Samsung sales girl displays one of the biggest LCD televisions available. Many couples in Myanmar buy a television as their first electronic purchase after their marriage. Pic: Instablog Network

A RAFT of modern electronic products have entered Myanmar’s marketplace in the last decade, sweeping many older traditions away in front of them.

The most important of these devices have been ones defined as ‘labour saving’ like washing machines and electronic cookers but the most well known and loved electronic product is the colour television.

A television is often the first purchase a couple makes after they get married and colour televisions of one style or another stand in the corner of living rooms all over the country; many families consider them an indispensable item – almost a member of the family.

But people’s buying habits are slowly changing.

Daw Aye Aye Thwe runs Excellence Electronics Shop on Pansodan Road in downtown Yangon and said most of her customers like flat screen televisions with high resolution. She said her store’s highest-selling product were 21 inch (52.5 centimetre) televisions. She said demand for plasma screen televisions was rising but was still comparatively low, even though they had been on the market for seven years.

Daw Thin Zar, marketing assistant for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, said she expected that people would gradually shift to plasma televisions as they got wealthier.

“Customers only started becoming interested in plasma televisions a few years ago but because of their expensive price, only well-to-do people can afford them,” she said. Of the plasma televisions, she said the large 42 inch screens sold the best.

And the television's best friend and closest companion is the DVD player, which has also started to find itself into many homes, displacing the older, lower quality, VCD players in the process.

“After DVD players appeared on the market, the sale of VCD players clearly declined,” said the owner of Htate Tan Electronics Shop in Latha township.
Because they are relatively low-priced and can read almost all DVDs, Chinese made players are more popular than their Japanese equivalents. A high proportion of DVD discs also come from China.

For people who want to store fresh food for longer periods of time and keep their drinks cool, a refrigerator is an essential item. There are many brands, styles and sizes of refrigerator which people can choose to buy but a number of Yangon’s electronics shop managers agreed that most customers opt for the simplicity of a single door unit.

The reasons why people choose single door units are clear.

“Twin door fridges need more space and cost more money,” Daw Aye Aye Thwe said.

In such a competitive market, companies have resorted to adding gadgets to increase sales. Antibiotic deodorisers, ice-makers and no-frost systems are just a few examples of gimmicks that have been common in developed countries for many years but are now making their way into Myanmar’s marketplace.

A number of manufacturers also produce fridges which the claim intercept hazardous bacteria before it enters the chilled environment of the fridge.
Malaysian company Khind distribute a number of these products in Myanmar.

U Kyaw Kyaw, company spokesperson for Khind, said he thought that customers often chose better known brands because they thought they were the only ones which were able to offer warranties on their products.

But Daw Thant Thant Zin, senior general manager of OK Myanmar Co – which distributes Daewoo electronics in Myanmar, said her customers often considered design and colour when choosing which fridge to buy.
“They love colours like white and silver,” she said.

With the brutally hot and humid summer months coming up fast, consumers are now looking at their air-conditioning options to conquer the weather.
With the increased demand for air-conditioners in shops, some companies are trying to attract customers by offering special deals and discounts.

Daw Thin Zar from Matsushita Electric said this year Panasonic has introduced two new types of air-conditioning units. One features an air purifying system which strips dust from the air; and the other includes a power inverter, which increases cooling but uses less electricity than conventional units.

Daw Thant Thant Zin from OK Myanmar said she thought customers liked split unit air-conditioners but ultimately chose whichever system did the best job for the money they were willing to spend.

Daewoo, a Korean brand, has also started to import new flat model air-conditioning units into Myanmar.

There is another floor mounted unit which Daewoo’s Daw Thant Thant Zin predicted would soon be adopted by the public because they took up very little space.

And no modern house is complete without a washing machine. Daw Aye Aye Thwe from Excellence Electronics said there were two types of washing machines on the market: automatics and semi-automatics.

“The demand for semi-automatic units has increased while only some people like the fully automated machines. The semi-autos are able to take rougher handling,” Daw Aye Aye Thwe said.

She said a typical Myanmar housewife would want to wash some clothes by hand, especially the necks and armpits of shirts. Semi-automatic washing machines were convenient for those people, she said, because they could take clothes out of the machine, brush the stain out and return them to the machine. In her opinion, most housewives believed this technique left clothes cleaner and whiter than if they were simply washed in the machine.

The best-selling period for washing machines is during the monsoon season when it rains all day.

The kitchen should not be neglected when all other rooms in a house have been furnished with the latest in electronic products. Modern kitchens feature microwave ovens, electronic stoves, gas cookers, toasters, electronic kettles and rice cookers, and all are available in Myanmar's markets.