EMEA public display shipments decreased 6.7% year on year in the third quarter of 2009 according to Meko’s DisplayCast tracking service for public displays. The reduction is less than was seen in Q1 and Q2 where we saw year-on-year declines of 14.7% and 15.5% respectively. Recovery was seen in developing regions for digital signage such as the Mediterranean region who saw a 20.4% increase YoY and the Middle East and Africa that saw a 14.9%.
“We are seeing an improvement in the overall market; but it remains slow to recover”, said Andy Barker, analyst director for public displays at Meko. “Not only is it a question of how quickly an economy is coming out of recession but how a country responded to the credit crunch. For instance, Germany saw a 5.3% YoY volume growth in PD in Q3 as it was faster to recover. Others, such as Spain saw a quarterly increase of 8.6%, as they look to invest in digital signage to furnish public project schemes as they near completetion having been started to boost employment at the beginning of the down turn. However, countries only just coming out of recession who made minimal capital investment such as the UK, are not seeing their public display market improve and saw a 22.7% YoY decline”.
Samsung had a very strong quarter and saw their share increase to 40.4% of the market from 33.6% in Q2 2009. NEC Displays grew QoQ and took 21.1% of the EMEA market. “We saw the top three brands strengthened their grip on the market taking over 73% market share in the quarter, versus 67.8% in Q2” said Barker.
LCD continued to dominate the technology with over 84.8% of the market versus PDP. “While we saw continued declines for plasma technology, we do not see it disappearing from the market because of the substantial investments brands such as Panasonic have made in new fabs” Barker commented.
Meko are forecasting a double-digit recovery in terms of volumes in 2010, although this will vary substantially across the countries and regions. Some areas will see an improvement due to external factors such as the World Cup. Others have substantial DOOH projects due to complete during the year. However, other markets will continue to see declines due to lack of credit, public investment or both.
