Shipments of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors in Taiwan slipped around 2 percent in the first quarter primarily because of sluggish demand from corporations amid concern about the nation’s political and economic situation ahead of the March presidential elections, market researcher International Data Center (IDC) said in its latest report.
But, a recovery seems to be in the cards as IDC expects PC monitor shipments in Taiwan to increase slightly year-on-year on the back of rising consumer demand, which would end two straight years of declining shipments.
In the first quarter, LCD monitor shipments dropped 2.2 percent year-on-year to 387,608 units, during which 19-inch screen monitors accounted for the biggest portion, or around 43 percent, last week’s IDC report said.
On a quarterly basis, that represents about a 14.8 percent decline. IDC did not provide detailed comparative figures.
“Corporate purchases looked conservative because of political and economic uncertainty,” IDC analyst Kim Hye-jin (金惠珍) said in the report.
A significant decline of 20 percent in desktop computers during the first quarter was one of the major factors driving down monitor shipments, Kim said.
“Consumer confidence is weak and they were still unwilling to buy in the slack season, despite some monitor makers launching promotional activities,” Kim said.
But Kim forecast that overall LCD monitor shipments would grow slightly this year, supported by replacement demand from consumers and recovering demand from corporations, after shipments fell last year and in 2006.
“The consumer market has increased for the third straight quarter since the third quarter of last year, which shows that demand is gradually on the rise,” Kim said.
In the rankings, Viewsonic (優派) safeguarded its top place in the first three months of the year, IDC said. Acer Inc climbed to No. 2 from No. 4 a year ago, while Chi Mei Corp (奇美) fell to the third place from second. BenQ Corp (明基) fell out of the top three.
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