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Thin computer screens become hot item in Asia

Sales of the sleeker liquid-crystal-display computer monitors in the Asia-Pacific region rocketed nearly sevenfold in the September quarter from a year earlier as prices fell, an industry report said yesterday.

International Data Corp (IDC) said the rise, which resulted in 574,255 sales in the third quarter, is likely to continue.

LCD sales are expected to climb fivefold over the full year and a slower 78 percent next year.

Negative consumer sentiment after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was primarily felt in the market for conventional computer monitors, which is expected to contract by one percent overall this year, IDC said.

LCD monitors, which are slim and sleek display screens and come with higher resolution than the conventional cathode-ray-tube monitors, now account for 11 percent of the total market for PCs.

They are fast encroaching into the territory of the thick, heavyset traditional monitors which look like television sets, IDC said.

In the third quarter of last year, LCDs accounted for only 1.6 percent of the total monitor market in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan. This increased to 5.4 percent in the second quarter of this year, IDC said.

The third quarter sales volume doubled from the preceding quarter.

"We are finally seeing LCD monitors claim a more prominent role in the market, spurred by prices falling 56 percent on average over the course of the year," IDC analyst Manny Lopez was quoted as saying in a press statement.

"Furthermore, PC vendors are increasingly building LCD monitors with their computers, thus dramatically driving adoption," Lopez said.

"Given the current tough PC market conditions, many vendors throughout the region are looking to differentiate themselves from their competitors and with the recent price drops in LCDs, bundling these monitors with PCs is an effective way to make their products more attractive," he said.

The market in China accounted for a bulk of the third quarter increase, with LCD sales rising fivefold in the three months to September from the June quarter. China and South Korea are forecast to lead growth next year, it said.
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