Domestic Projector Sales up 18% YoY in Q1: IDC Taiwan

Taipei, May 17, 2010 (CENS)--A total of 26,017 units of projectors were sold in Taiwan in the first quarter of the year, down 55% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) but up 28% year-on-year (YoY), according to statistics released by IDC Taiwan.

Mel Yeh, market analyst at IDC Taiwan's PC & Peripherals Group, said, "Demand from the educational sector declined sharply from a peak period in the fourth quarter of 2009, but the home and commercial markets saw clear sales recovery."

The XGA (extended graphics array, 1024 x 768 pixels resolution) models remained the market mainstream during the first quarter, commanding an 81% share of the overall market, down from 84% in the previous quarter. In terms of lumens, those models with 2,500 to 3,000 lumens were the mainstream products, accounting for 34% of total shipments, down from 37.3% of the previous quarter.

Yeh commented that high-lumens models, which go mainly to the educational market, would no longer enjoy as strong demand as last year, while short-focus models would become vendors' mainstream products this year. In addition, Yeh continued that the 3D-ready and Full High-Definition (HD), or 1080p, models are expected to win a larger market share.

The top-five projector vendors in the first quarter were Epson, Optoma, BenQ, Sanyo and ViewSonic (compared to Epson, Optoma, BenQ, Vivitek, and NEC seen in the previous quarter). The top five together accounted for 79.5% of the overall market in the first quarter, up from 76.9% of the previous quarter.

IDC Taiwan pointed out that the second quarter has been the traditional off season in local projector market, with sales in commercial and educational markets are expected to decline slightly. However, the 2010 FIFA World Cup is expected to heat up the home market.

Projector Shipments in Taiwan (Q1of 2009 to Q1 of 2010 )
	Q1'09	Q2'09	Q3'09	Q4'09	Q1'10
Shipments	20,234	15,288	31,641	57,285	26,016
Source: IDC Taiwan.