Monday, September 26, 2011

Increase in Mobile Computing Sees Decrease in Monitor Sales

While the computer industry may be growing at a rapid rate, there is one aspect of it that is falling behind. It has become obvious over the last couple of years that, as a result of the rise of laptops and tablets, the computer monitor industry has seen a dent in sales, at least in terms of standalone PC monitors.

If that wasn't bad enough, sales are now starting to decline at a faster rate than ever. European display market researcher Meko has discovered that monitor sales have dropped nearly 13.6% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since the last quarter. What is even more unfortunate is that this marks the fourth straight quarter of decline.

In addition to that, the rate of decline is also increasing with consumer sales taking a majority of the impact. North American market researcher DisplaySearch has also witnessed a similar decrease in sales in the North American market. Monitor sales have decreased 15% year-over-year since last quarter after a brief but overall insignificant 1% increase between 2009 and 2010. These numbers also include monitors that were bundled with desktop PCs.

However, many market researches have stated that the decrease in sales was not entirely unanticipated, and not just because of the influx of laptops and tablets. Without new innovations in monitor technology, like going from CRT to flat-panel or from 4:3 to widescreen, there really isn't a lot of incentive for PC owners to go out and buy a new monitor.

What's more interesting is that, despite the drop in sales, the price of monitors hasn't really changed. LED-backlit displays, which were originally designed to raise the average selling price of monitors, are being priced similarly to CCFL-backlit LCD monitors. It seems that no matter what the price is demand is just not going to be there.

However, DisplaySearch still sees a need for standalone monitors in the home. A lot of people are looking into "smart" monitors that have the ability to connect to the internet or to other computing devices. These devices would then act as a hub for when a user needs a larger screen or extra monitor. But despite that, it is sad to see a decline in monitor sales. Hopefully more people will get into the realm of custom PC builds, a field that requires the purchase of at least one, if not multiple monitors.

Source: PC World - Monitor Sales Keep Plummeting as Mobile Takes Over

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1 comment:

Kamamura said...

There is another factor not mentioned in the article, and that is a significant flaw of most new LED backlit monitors - the backlight flicker. The LED backlit monitors use the same PWM circuits as CCFL monitos did, but since LEDS have faster reaction time to voltage drop, they create much more pronounced flicker that (according to many users and my personal experience) contributes to negative effects like eyestrain, migraine, nausea, dizziness, and others. I have recently tried to replace my broken Dell 2209WA and though I have put aside sizable sum to purchase a quality piece, I could not find anything that did not hurt my eyes, ending up with old, inferior, but CCFL lit TN panel. Check reviews on prad.de - they started to measure the PWM flicker as an important factor when deciding a purchase.