Chinese-made projectors recalled due to fire hazard

The recalled products are Lightform home projectors with models LF2 and LF2+ because the projector's fan may malfunction, causing overheating and fire. At present, Lightform has received 16 reports of overheating, but fortunately, no casualties or property damage have occurred.

It is understood that this batch of projectors were made in China and sold on the Lightform official website and Amazon from March 2020 to August 2021, with a price of about US$900. Lightform said that it needs to recall 1,600 projectors this time. In addition, the product has been removed from various channels.

Nowadays, more and more people are pursuing home theater effects, and the projector market is slowly shifting from the B-end to the C-end. For European and American consumers, buying a screen larger than 70 or 75 inches requires thousands of dollars, while a projector that can project a 100-inch screen only costs a few hundred dollars. For this reason, home projectors have become one of the best-selling products on major sales platforms.

Many Chinese sellers have also sensed this business opportunity. According to RUNTO's research, the scale of projectors exported from China in 2020 is about 8 million units. In Europe and the United States, the price of the main projector products is concentrated around US$100. The brands in this price range are basically Chinese brands, and even more than 80% are from Shenzhen.

For most Chinese sellers, in addition to the hardware quality issues mentioned above, there is another issue to consider - it is temporarily impossible to obtain Google's Android authorization.

In the United States, audio-visual products can only guarantee system version updates and download Netflix, Amazon and other related video content in the Google Store if they are authorized. So far, only a few brands such as XGIMI and Xiaomi have Android authorization. Among the projection products being exported, there are almost no smart operating systems. 70% of the terminals are HDMI+USB, and 30% have screen projection functions. According to RUNTO data, TV sets, a competitive category of projectors, have a 97% share in the North American market and come with smart systems including Android, Roku, Tizen, etc.

From this perspective, relevant sellers still need to work harder if they want to compete for more market share.

Projector

recall