IDC Gloomy on Prospects for Monitors

The worldwide desktop monitor market hit more than 30 million units in Q2 of 2016, with 4.9% annual and 4.6% quarterly growth according to IDC. “The second quarter proved better than forecast overall, with the U.S., EMEA, and Canada markets recording solid year-over-year results. However, IDC expects the global monitor market will continue to decline at rates around 3% year over year from 2018 through 2020” said Maura Fitzgerald, senior research analyst.

For the year, IDC forecasts sales of 118 million monitors, and is forecasting a decline of 12.7% for Q2 next year. The decline is forecast to continue until 2020. Some highlights of the firm’s data are:

• Curved monitors continue to be on the rise, with 1.9% market share in 2Q16. This represents year-over-year growth of 221%.
• 21.5″ wide and 19.5″ wide segments continue to dominate the worldwide market, with 22.0% and 12.2% market share respectively in 2Q16. Of the top 10 screen sizes, 23.8″ wide and 31.5″ wide saw the largest year-over-year growth, posting 100.1% and 76.8%, respectively, in 2Q16.
• Monitors with TV tuners are expected to have 5.3% market share in 2Q17, up from 4.8% in 2Q16, led by LG and Samsung with a combined market share of 99.0% in this category.

Turning to vendors, the company said that:

• Dell – Dell stayed in the top position in 2Q16 with worldwide market share of 17.0% on shipments of more than 5.2 million units. The vendor posted strong year-over-year growth in Central & Eastern Europe (31.2%), Canada (25.5%), and Middle East & Africa (18.0%).
• HP – HP saw 4 million units shipped, resulting in 13% share in 2Q16. Year-over-year unit increases of 51.1% in the U.S. and 22.4% in Central & Eastern Europe helped bring the vendor a total year-over-year increase of 19.6%.
• Lenovo – Lenovo made significant gains, moving into the top 3 position with year-over-year growth of 2.7% to more than 3 million units shipped. Lenovo also posted significant quarter-over-quarter growth of 27.1%, with especially large growth in Central & Eastern Europe (114.5%) and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (33.1%).
• Samsung – Samsung moved down to the number four position with nearly 3 million units shipped. The vendor saw a year-over-year decline in all regions except Central & Eastern Europe, and Canada.
• LG Electronics – LG rounded out the Top 5 in 2Q16 with 9.2% market share in the worldwide market. The vendor logged year-over-year gains across all regions except Middle East & Africa.