Global shipments of gaming monitors could exceed 11 million units this year, surging 31 percent on an annual basis as PC makers expand product lineups to stimulate demand, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report on Thursday.
The gaming monitor industry has so far shown strong growth, with shipments rising 57 percent year-on-year to 8.5 million units last year from 5.4 million a year earlier, the report said.
It attributed the increase to continuous diversification of panel types and monitor models.
The number of suppliers of gaming monitor panels rose as new entrants entered the supply chain, TrendForce senior research manager Anita Wang (王靖怡) said in the report.
China’s Star Optoelectronics Technology Co (華星光電) and Electronics Panda Crystal Technology Corp (中電熊貓) launched mass production last year, joining the ranks of main suppliers such as AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) and Innolux Corp (群創) in Taiwan, Samsung Display Co and LG Display Co in South Korea, and BOE Technology Group Co (京東方) in China, Wang said.
Retail prices for gaming LCD panels fell to more consumer-friendly levels, which dialed up product adoption rates, she said.
The rise of fast-response in-plane switching (IPS) panels enabled wider adoption of IPS panels in gaming monitors last year, the report said, adding that a 10 percent increase in the technology penetration rate of IPS panels is expected this year, which would raise the rate to between 15 and 20 percent.
There was a significant increase in market share for vertical alignment (VA) panels last year, thanks to the growth in popularity of curved gaming monitors, the report said.
VA panels rose to prominence in 2018 because of an excellent cost-performance ratio, the report said, adding that last year, brands including AOC/Philips, Samsung Electronics Co and Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星科技) expended a lot of effort to expand the gaming hardware market with curved monitors.
As a result, curved gaming monitors claimed about 60 percent of the overall gaming monitor market last year, it said.
MSI is expected to continue expanding and diversifying its medium and large product lines to maintain high growth momentum, TrendForce said.
Along with Samsung, MSI is to release updated curved gaming monitors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, next week, TrendForce said.
Monitor and PC makers are mulling expansion into the high-end gaming monitor segment, the researcher said.
Dell Inc has rolled out a gaming product equipped with an ultra-high-definition OLED panel, while Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and Acer Inc (宏碁) are planning to introduce mini-LED display monitors, which are more affordable and deliver picture quality almost equal to OLED, TrendForce said.
HP, Asustek and Acer are also planning to roll out large gaming products, it said.
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