LCD Market Stalls In Europe

European monitor market research specialist Meko has just publishedits latest DisplayCast CRT and LCD reports. The new research indicatesthat European desktop monitor market volume declined by 20.9% quarteron quarter and by 2% year on year. The decrease matches thewell-reported declines in the PC market. By technology, CRT unit salesfell by more than 20% year on year, reflecting the strong shift towardLCD monitors. As a result of the rise in LCD monitor pricing during thefirst two quarters of 2002, LCD monitor sales volumes declinedsequentially for the first time. The total sales volume of LCD monitorsin Europe was just under 1.9 million units, down 15.9% compared to Q12002. Year on year sales were up by more than 130%, reinforcing thetechnology's continuing popularity in the market.

"Underlying these top level trends, we noticed that in somecountries the LCD share of the market by volume also declined",commented Bob Raikes, Meko's managing director and head of marketresearch. "For example, in France, Spain, and the UK, the penetrationrate went down quarter on quarter. In other territories where theadoption rate has historically been high, such as Switzerland, we saw amarked slowdown in the growth of the LCD sector", he added.

In Switzerland, LCDs have represented more than 50% of the market byvolume since Q2 2001. In the same period in 2002, LCD share was 79.8%but in Q2 this rose only slightly to 82.2%. Other countries thatexperienced rapid take up of LCD monitors as a result of pricereductions throughout 2001 have also seen a slow down in growth.Italian monitor buyers were keen to take on the stylish new products atthe end of last year but as prices have risen again, the cost consciouscountry has seen sales growth slow in Q2.

As a result of rising prices, the 15in. segment has beenparticularly badly affected with sales down more than 18% sequentially.LCD panel makers in the Far East have moved more production to largerscreen sizes in order to keep average selling prices and margins ashigh as possible. However, prices for 17in. LCD monitors have continuedto fall as LG.Philips LCD in Korea and a number of Taiwanese panelmakers increased availability of this screen size. As a result, salesof 17in. LCD monitors grew sequentially - the only category to do so.The lower prices and continued improvement in performance of 17in. LCDmonitors has caused buyers to move away from the 18in. segment. Salesin this category fell by more than 29% sequentially and by only 82.8%year on year.

"A decrease in the number of large-volume projects due to a slowdownin corporate spending, particularly in the UK, France, and Germany, hasalso hampered sales of 18in. LCD monitors", said Raikes. "It is only insome of the developing markets in the East of Europe that we saw growthin this category."

Another factor that helped to squeeze the 18in. segment is thegrowing number of 19in. LCD monitors that are available. "At the highend, the market is becoming increasingly complex with many new screensize and resolution combinations. We believe that in the 19in.category, monitors with a resolution of 1.9 megapixels (1600x1200) willwin in the end because they increase the visual bandwidth for theuser," Raikes said. By vendor, the new HP was the largest supplier byvolume in the LCD market, followed by Samsung, Dell, Philips, andFujitsu-Siemens. In the CRT sector, Samsung further extended its leadat the top of the table with a 17.4% share. The new HP moved up intosecond place with Dell, LG and Philips below it.