DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in display market research and consulting, has released the key findings in its Q1’08 Quarterly Desktop Monitor Shipment and Forecast Report .
After losing the top worldwide market share position in desktop LCD monitors to Samsung in Q3’07, Dell has bounced back with a sequential growth rate of 6.8%, putting the two brands in a statistical tie for the #1 for Q4’07 with Dell marginally taking back the #1 slot. HP remained the #3 WW vendor, showing a growth rate of 12.2% (see Table 1). Further analysis reveals that brands focused on sales to commercial entities (especially PC brands that typically sell desktop PCs and displays as one bundled package) fared better than stand-alone vendors or those typically focused on sales to consumers.
※ブランド別・地域別・サイズ/解像度別の実数値、及び同用途TFT LCDパネル出荷動向など、より詳細データを当該レポートにてご確認ください。ご購入者様には担当アナリストから詳細市況・メーカ別動向などさらなる補足説明もいたします。サンプルご希望はこちらまで
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* Includes Gateway consumer sales
Worldwide sales of desktop LCD monitors remained virtually flat in Q4’07, as shown above. Total LCD monitor shipments grew less than 0.5% Q/Q, making this the first time since the LCD monitor market began in earnest in 1999 that such small growth has been seen from Q3 to Q4. “While it is quite typical to see a sequential dropoff in unit volume sales for both commercial and consumer buyers in seasonally weak period such as the first quarter of each year, it is quite unusual to see such flat growth in the fourth quarter of the calendar year,” noted Chris Connery, vice-president of PC and Large Format Displays for DisplaySearch.
Regional analysis shows that weak sales of LCD monitors into the EMEA market (which fell 5% Q/Q) was the biggest contributor to the overall weak market. Sales into North America were also weaker than expected, rising only 4.6% sequentially. Leveraging POS sell-through data for both commercial and consumer channels from parent company The NPD Group, further analysis shows that consumer demand for LCD monitors, a recent catalyst for growth, dropped 12% Y/Y in retail sell-through to US consumers, contributing in a large way to the weak overall worldwide LCD monitor shipments in the quarter. Strong growth in US commercial segments, which showed a Y/Y increase of 25%, indicates institutional purchasing remained healthy.
In consecutive quarters leading up to Q4, typically a hot selling and shipping season for LCD monitor manufacturers, pricing for key panel components had seen steady increases, so brands were much less aggressive in their holiday price promotions in 2007. “With a significant penetration of wide displays already having been purchased by consumers in the prior year, little promotional activity, and no new technologies of note, brands had little new to offer to US consumers, which left the desktop monitor category off the radar for most US consumers in Q4’07,” noted Connery. Institutional purchases remained strong, however, with business, education and government continuing their transitions from standard-aspect ratio displays to wide displays either as stand-alone upgrade or as part of the hardware and software transition to Microsoft’s Vista.
Healthy commercial demand for new displays is expected to remain in 2008 as at least two different independent studies show clear productivity advances in standard workplace environments as a result of upgrading older, standard aspect ratio displays such as the mainstream 17"SXGA display or the 19"SXGA display to larger and wider displays such as 22"Wide displays. Additionally, Microsoft has now released its first service pack for Vista. This has reportedly been the milestone that many companies were waiting for before standardizing on the new operating system. Wholesale hardware upgrades are expected to be concurrent with new operating system deployment.
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While to some the LCD monitor market may seem like old news, its significance to the total LCD market and its entire value chain remains quite relevant (see Table 2). “LCD monitors still accounted for over 43% of the unit volumes of large-area LCD shipments in Q4’07,” notes Connery. “The health of this sector remains a key benchmark for many in the LCD supply chain.” While LCD TVs account for just under 50% of the large-area revenues in the three main application areas of larger-format LCDs (TVs, notebooks and monitors), unit volume shipments of desktop monitor displays help to keep factories fully-operational. A healthy monitor market with strong demand helps to keep overall pricing up for panel manufacturers by allowing them to operate at maximum efficiency. A slip in demand for monitors could shift production towards other applications such as LCD TVs or notebook displays, thus potentially causing oversupplies of capacity in either of these areas, resulting in lower pricing. It is thus in the best interest of the LCD industry to maintain a healthy desktop monitor business to mitigate losses that might result from a drop in demand.
※ブランド別・地域別・サイズ/解像度別の実数値、及び同用途TFT LCDパネル出荷動向など、より詳細データを当該レポートにてご確認ください。ご購入者様には担当アナリストから詳細市況・メーカ別動向などさらなる補足説明もいたします。サンプルご希望はこちらまで
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