"With PC sales on the upward trend, the PC monitor market looks more optimistic into 2010, despite competing devices such as notebooks and all-in-one desktops have been threatening to cannibalize standalone monitor volume," says Reuben Tan, Senior Manager of Client Devices, Domain Research Group at IDC Asia/Pacific. "More affordable 16:9 monitors available in the market mean more users can opt for increasingly larger sizes, oftentimes with LED backlights. This in turn spurs LCD-LCD upgrades."
"IDC also notices that more PC vendors tend to bundle desktops with larger screens, especially 23"W LCDs. And we expect CRT shipments to completely cease in the APEJ market this year," says Yvonne Chiang, Market Analyst of Client Devices, Domain Research Group at IDC Asia/Pacific.
Vendor Rankings in 2H09
- The Top 6 vendors in APEJ in 2H09 were Lenovo, Samsung, HP, AOC, LG, and Acer. Compared to 1H09, Lenovo forged ahead and displaced Samsung to reclaim first ranking, pushing the latter to second. HP achieved third spot, pushing both AOC and LGE respectively down one rank lower than 1H09. The Top 6 vendors captured around 62.1% of overall PC monitor sales in the APEJ region in 2H09, a marginal decline from 62.2% in 1H09.
- Of the Top 6 vendors, only Lenovo posted a sequential and year-on-year growth, coming from the PRC and Malaysia. In the PRC, Lenovo was able to further strengthen its foothold with efforts in expanding its presence in sub-regions by setting up more retail shops. In Malaysia, Lenovo has strengthened its presence in both public and private sectors.
Country Outlook
Given the improved market sentiment, IDC has revised its forecast upward, largely due to the upward revisions in the PRC and several ASEAN markets.
According to IDC's latest 5-year forecast, the 18.5"W is expected to be the mainstream size for India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia until 2014. In Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand, 18.5"W will remain as the mainstream size until 2012, and 21.5"W will take over from 2013. Australia and Korea are exceptions, with 21.5"W and 23"W expected to be the mainstream sizes in 2010.
In 4Q09, models with LED back-light technology saw tremendous growth over 3Q09, especially within the 18.5"W and 21.5"W sizes, due to LED backlight pricing having narrowed with CCFL to negligible gaps. In mature markets such as Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, there is a higher adoption of LCDs that are of larger sizes, that is, at least 21.5"W and above. In Korea for example, LCD sizes of larger sizes (21.5"W and above) accounted for 55.2% of the total monitor market in 2009.
Figure 1. APEJ PC Monitor Sales Forecast from 2009 to 2014 (in Units)
