Meko Press Releases

EMEA Monitors Back to 2004 Levels in Q1

DATE: 27^th May 2009

The latest data from Meko's DisplayCast Desktop Monitor service for Q1 2009 shows a headline volume decline of 11.5% for desktop displays to 11.27 million units, the lowest quarter since Q2 2006. There was also a sharp decline in market sales value of 26% to $2.76 billion, the lowest since Q2 of 2003. The volume level was the lowest for a Q1 since 2004 and, for value, the lowest Q1 since Meko started tracking the market in 2000.

There was a mixture of good news and bad news across the board. The analysis of consumer vs commercial sales showed that the commercial channel suffered most heavily in the quarter, with only 48% of the total, a decline of 1.7% from the previous quarter. The good news was that some vendors in the consumer sector fared a little better than those who depend on the commercial channels for all their business. Regionally the Western countries did better than Central and Eastern Europe. Russia and the Eastern countries had a poor Q4 2008 and continued to drop by more than 30% quarter on quarter in volume in Q1. Compared to Q1 of 2008, Russia declined by a massive 72% in market sales value, showing the extent to which retraction of credit by banks has affected the Russian market.

"We have seen some positive steps from many vendors in the consumer sector despite the overall downward trend", commented Paul Butler, analyst director at Meko. "Of the top 10 brands, LG, Asus, Acer and Hannspree all increased volumes for the quarter showing that there were some deals to be made". The analysis also showed that some of the popular brands suffered significant drops in the quarter. Samsung, HP, Fujitsu Technology Solutions (previously Fujitsu-Siemens) and BenQ all suffered bigger than average declines as they rely quite heavily on the commercial sales sector for their volumes. "The information coming from the vendors following the first quarter sales is that panel makers are still increasing their prices and availability is becoming tight which is confirmed by our monthly inventory survey", continued Butler. "We expect LCD panel supply to remain tight during the next quarter, especially in the new 16:9 formats, as the demand from the TV markets in other regions is growing and putting pressure on the supply channels".

ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Analyst comment and graphs to support the data are available on request. Please contact Clare Carr via clarec@meko.co.uk or call on +44 (0)1252 835385.

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