Market Intelligence – PMA Research, the worldwide market information experts on front projectors, has just published their latest research findings on the worldwide projector market. Total volume jumped to 2.2 million in the second calendar quarter of 2014 with sales of mainstream, high-end, and pico and personal projectors each registering double-digit year/year growth.
Sales of mainstream projectors rose 13% over last year’s second quarter. In advanced markets, particularly the U.S. and Western Europe, widescreen resolutions continued to outperform the market and take share from XGA. The continued recovery in education budgets, particularly in the U.S. and Western Europe, drove a robust gain in sales of Wide XGA interactive projectors. Strong sales of 1080p projectors in Western Europe were fueled by aggressive pricing, increased uptake in businesses, and Germany’s championship run in the World Cup. However, the surge in sales of 1080p projectors wasn’t limited to Europe as Asian and U.S. markets also reported a strong quarter for 1080p sales. Finally, reflecting the broad-based gains during the quarter, mainstream sales rose across all industry segments in China while worldwide sales of entry-level projectors rose sharply as education tenders in Africa and other emerging markets combined with e-tail sales in advanced markets to sustain SVGA volumes.
In the high-end projector market, sales hit an all-time high for the first half of any year as U.S. sales of super-bright models continued to lead the world on volume basis and also turned in another strong quarter of double-digit growth. The generally improved economies in advanced markets such as the U.S., Western Europe, Japan, and Korea translated to more spending on large venue projectors for public venue entertainment, large corporate meeting rooms, university auditoriums, and rental and staging applications. Shipments of high-end, laser-phosphor models increased sharply during the quarter, and are also expected to accelerate throughout the rest of the year as manufacturers launch new products in this growing segment.
With much of the world’s cinema market now digitized, especially advanced markets, manufacturers and integrators of digital cinema projectors continued to turn to emerging markets such as Latin America and more compact and affordable DCI projectors for smaller cinema screens, independent art houses, museums, other public entertainment venues, and production houses in advanced markets. However, the most newsworthy item of the second quarter was initial shipments of laser-based projectors for digital cinema.
Sales of pico projectors hit their highest level in more than a year thanks to easier connectivity to smartphones and tablets along with continued price/performance gains. Wall- or USB-powered personal projectors also turned in an impressive sales gain during the quarter thanks to the shift to brighter products and a full suite of features including wireless and MHL connectivity, built-in TV tuners, SMART TV, office viewers, and built-in media players that make these projectors suitable for work and play.
