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Global Monitor Shipment Forecast to Drop 5.1% YoY in 2014

2014/01/03 | By Steve Chuang

The global market for monitors is expected to keep shrinking in 2014, when overall shipment including all-in-one PCs is forecast to drop 5.1% year-on-year (YoY) to some 150 million units, according to WitsView Technology Corp., a Taiwan-based market research firm.

WitsView indicated that global monitor shipment is estimated at approximately 158 million units, declining 5% YoY, in 2013, and then will continue dipping to 150 million units in 2014. Of 2014's total, 134 million units will be LCD models, and the remainder all-in-one PCs, down 6.3% and up 6.7%, respectively, YoY.

The research firm noted that the decline in LCD monitor shipment is based primarily on brand vendors' conservative sales goals for 2014, when global display panel makers will likely cut output to adapt to an ever-changing market.

Also driving WitsView's pessimism is the persistently growing encroachment of smart and mobile Internet devices on the global monitor market. To safeguard profits in the face of the threat, global suppliers of conventional monitors, in fact, are actively developing and promoting touchscreen models compatible with Microsoft's Windows 8 over the past year, but the efforts have yet to bear fruit for some reasons.

Among the primary reasons touchscreen monitors haven't been widely accepted by consumers is the extremely high unit prices, due to such models calling for projective capacitive touch modules that are subject to Windows 8 certification requirements to enable multi-touch on screen, as well as larger-sized panels. As a result, touchscreen monitors generally are produced at two times the costs of conventional models, noted WitsView.

Also an equally important reason, the market research firm added, is that in the past year Windows 8 had failed to stimulate consumer demand for new PC replacements as anticipated, leading to sluggish sales of touchscreen monitors.

While conventional PC monitors may have hit rock bottom, smart monitors, particularly those installed with the Android operating system, however, are showing comparatively promising growth potential, mainly because such models feature not just touchscreens, but also basic functions of a PC to access the Internet, according to WitsView.

Also notable is that WitsView opines LCD monitors with wide viewing angles will be increasingly sought-after by consumers in 2014, when its  penetration rate will surge to 25-30% compared to around 10% in 2013. Meanwhile, the market trend for higher image definition has influenced the sector, as display panel makers  move to develop high-definition models specifically for monitor and all-in-one PCs, which, the market research firm believes, will likely drive growth of  global monitor shipment. (SC)