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European LCD Monitor Sales to Grow by More than 30% in 2004
DATE: 9th March 2004
LCD Monitors are set to continue their year on year growth according to the latest forecasts from Meko's DisplayCast market research service. Overall the European desktop monitor market is expected to show 3.1% growth in volume in 2004 compared to 2003 with a further rise of 4.3% expected in 2004. The major regions in the west of Europe are not expected to drive this growth as demand for notebook PCs will reduce demand for desktop PCs and thus for monitors. Sales in central and eastern Europe are expected to grow more strongly with demand for LCD monitors rising quickly. "As demand for new desktop PCs in some countries is not expected to be as strong as in recent years, we can expect the desktop monitor market to level off in 2004 and 2005", noted Pete Gamby, Meko's research director. "Notebook PCs are proving popular with consumers as well as business users and the PC makers are strongly promoting 'desktop replacement' portable computers", he added. "Although we saw some shift back to CRT monitor sales at the end of 2003, we expect LCD panel supply in the monitor sector to ease somewhat this year as additional capacity comes on line. We are also seeing that demand in the LCD TV segment is not as strong globally as expected - this should also help to 'free up' panel capacity", said Gamby. "However, we are not expecting prices to drop dramatically and, in particular, supply of 15 inch panels will remain constrained", he cautioned. The CRT market will decline by nearly a third in each of the next two years with shipments of around 9.2m units in 2005 compared to nearly 18m units in 2003. For LCDs, the outlook is much better. Unit sales should grow by more than a third this year, assuming that the panel makers continue to add production capacity at the expected rate. Growth from 2004 to 2005 will slow somewhat to around 20% year on year. However, as the market for flat panel desktop displays has begun to mature, there is no longer a consistent quarter on quarter growth in the LCD monitor market. Instead, predictable seasonal trends are beginning to emerge in many of the countries in Europe. For example, some of the Nordic countries are showing a downturn in LCD shipments in the third quarter each year. By screen size, sales of 15" LCD monitors will be constrained by the panel makers' wish to move to supply larger and more profitable panels. This means that 17" LCD monitors should show the strongest growth over the forecast period, provided that prices do not continue to rise. The 18" monitor segment will fall away very quickly as 19" becomes the accepted larger format. The data shows some continuing sales of 18" monitors as the panel makers will still make these screens, albeit at a high price. Perhaps the most significant change in the latest forecast from Meko is in the larger LCD screen sizes of 20" and above. The data shows that sales here should grow by more than 50% from 2003 to 2004 in unit terms. "As the average street price for the smaller screens continues to fall, this in effect 'frees up' some value in the market for certain users to spend on larger, higher specification monitors", notes Gamby. "In the past, this high end sector was served by 21 inch CRT monitors and while large size LCDs were still relatively expensive, this has remained the case. However, we are already seeing some downward price movement for 20 inch and larger screens - Dell and HP have been particularly aggressive in driving sales in this part of the market", he concluded. For more information on how to subscribe to the DisplayCast service, 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 http://www.meko.co.uk. ends Notes for editors: A graphic to accompany this release is available on request (see below for contact details). For more information about Meko contact: E-mail: bobr@meko.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1276 22677 http://www.meko.co.uk If you would like to receive press releases from Meko as soon as they are available, please send a blank email to: ListServer@meko.co.uk, with the subject line 'Subscribe MekoNews'. |