Meko Press Releases |
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Plasma Under Pressure In European Public Displays Market
DATE: 13th March 2007
The latest data from Meko's DisplayCast Public Displays market intelligence service shows that the European market for flat panel public and information displays is moving quickly towards LCD, leaving plasma panel makers with another question about where they can sell their products. The market showed only limited growth year on year in Q4 2006 with sales up by only 5.4% in unit terms and revenue up by a similar amount. Sequential growth was in line with expectations at around 22%. What will be most concerning for those in the plasma sector is that unit sales in this part of the market were down by more than a quarter compared to the same period in 2005 as more and more projects are being won by LCD suppliers. The lifetime and burn-in issues which have dogged plasma suppliers still seem to be a problem that will not go away and the increased resolution of LCD screens is also helping to win over customers despite relatively higher pricing. "The total cost of ownership card is one which has been played to good advantage by the LCD monitor suppliers", notes Pete Gamby, research director at Meko. "While the plasma suppliers that have been in the market have built very good technical offerings, the LCD players have caught up very quickly and can now meet the complex demands of the end user and system integrators in this market". The list of LCD suppliers continues to grow with recent new entrants such as Mitsubishi and Sharp soon to be joined by others such as Viewsonic. In the meantime, the plasma sector has seen Hitachi withdraw products that were designed specifically for the public displays market and Meko has heard that another Japanese supplier will follow suit very soon. Shipments of public displays were just over 57,000 units in Q4 2006, more or less in line with Meko's forecast for the market. LCD shipments accounted for 50% of that total, up from 43% in Q3 and less than the 30% of Q4 2005. By size, 42" LCD and plasma shipments accounted for nearly 70% of the market. "Although this combined share has slightly reduced over the past year, it is LCD that has won the battle at this crucial screen size and its share has risen from around 12% in Q4 2005 to 27% in Q4 last year", says Gamby. "Plasma is still price-competitive at 50" today but the LCD panel suppliers are very keen to use their massive factory capacity and larger screen sizes can use that capacity very profitably". By brand, Samsung led the overall market with an 18% share by volume. It wins mainly because it continues to supply both LCD and plasma monitors. Second place went to NEC Displays with its LCD sales. Combining NEC Displays and NEC Europe shipments would place the newly combined company just ahead of Samsung with 19% of the market. -end- For more information or graphics, please contact Pete Gamby on +44 (0)1276 22677 or by email at peteg@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'. |