Meko Press Releases

LCD Overtakes CRT In European Market In Q2 2003

DATE: 9^th September 2003

Preliminary data from Meko's DisplayCast market research indicates that the European CRT and LCD desktop monitor market in Q2 2003 presented the major players in the region with a tough challenge. As LCD supply tightened and panel prices were pushed up, it is evident that even some of the largest suppliers were not able to capitalise on what had been strongly rising demand for LCD monitors. According to figures from the company's survey of the market, the volume of monitors shipped during the quarter fell short of the expected 7.7m units and year on year growth was only 7% thanks to a significant drop in CRT monitor shipments.

Despite these challenges, LCD monitors continue to take share from CRT monitors and For the first time, shipments of LCD monitors accounted for more than 50% of the market by volume.

"Looking forward, we expect that LCD sales will continue to take more of the market by volume but there is a significant shortage of 15 inch LCD monitors at present and this will mean a slow down in rate of growth", commented Bob Raikes, Meko's principal. "By the beginning of 2005, LCD monitors will account for more than three quarters of the market. However, this growth relies on the ability of the panel makers to ramp up production at the next wave of fifth and above generation fabs. To date this has not proved easy and this is one of the factors that allowed the panel makers to push up prices on some panel sizes. In addition, in the search for profitability, the shortage of 15 inch panels has been caused by the panel makers moving production to larger screen sizes for both monitors and LCD TVs."

Final figures for the Q2 2003 European monitor market have recently been published and the volumes shipped by the top five brands in the region are shown in the table. At the top of the list again is Samsung, despite a year on year drop in sales volume of around 5%.

As has been seen in its PC shipments, Dell exhibited faster-than-market growth in the displays sector with a 32% gain year on year. HP was in third position following a drop of nearly 9% year on year.

European Market Shipments Q2 2003
Shipments (Units)
Samsung 959,000
Dell 707,000
HP 691,000
LG 541,000
Philips 476,000
Others 3,679,000
Source: Meko

The top supplier list is still dominated by the major PC brands and the large Korean monitor suppliers.

Despite reportedly healthy growth in the European PC market (and in particular in the Eastern part of Europe), many suppliers at the top of the market experienced a sequential decline in shipments.

"Clearly the increase in demand for notebook computers has not helped PC suppliers to maintain strong monitor shipment growth", explained Raikes. "We also believe that local "white box" PC suppliers in region are looking for cost effective third party monitor suppliers and that this has helped to prop up the sales volumes of some of the vendors outside the top ten."

Full details of the Q2 2003 European monitor market were published at the end of August. For more information on how to subscribe to the DisplayCast service, please contact Bob Raikes by telephone on +44 (0)1276 22677 or by email at bobr@meko.co.uk.

Meko is a specialist market research consultancy and publisher providing Advice and data for the European displays market. For information on its range of reports and the Display Monitor newsletter call +44 (0)1276 22677, e-mail sales@meko.co.uk or visit www.meko.co.uk

You can also purchase Meko reports in the USA from DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in flat panel display market research and consulting. Please contact DisplaySearch at Tel: +1 512 459 3126, Fax: +1 512 459 3127, email: info@displaysearch.com or Web: www.displaysearch.com

Ends

Notes for editors:
A executive summary of the LCD and CRT reports is available to editors only on request (see below for contact details). A graphic to accompany this release is also available on request.
For more information contact :
E-mail: bobr@meko.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1276 22677
http://www.meko.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)13398 80065

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