Monitors: LED, The King is Here

The PC monitor market went through a very difficult time post the Thai-floods. PC prices went soaring because of the dearth of hard-disks-which are primarily manufactured in Thailand. This was visible across the bundled and the standalone PC monitor segments. But irrespective of the growth parameters, the market came alive with interesting technological trends and changed consumer behavior.

Combined bundled and standalone PC market in FY12 accounted for `5,130 crore with a nominal 3.6% growth against the 12% growth in FY11.

Certainly the overall business spend on IT took a sharp plunge given the market conditions in the US and Europe. Out of `5,130 crore, the bundled monitor market accounts for `2,420 crore with a growth of 4%.

But here Dataquest will look into the standalone monitor market and trends that swept the market. The effort here is to measure the size and growth in this segment. As the overall monitor market did not do well, standalone suffered a jolt-registering a mere 3.3% growth at `2,710.

The dearth of hard disks pushed the assembled PC prices up which exert a direct impact on the sale of standalone monitors. Vendors like LG, Samsung, and others were seen struggling to find takers all through the year.

In the overall market, AOC emerged as the clear leader taking over LG with a marginal lead. It clinched the top spot with 22% market share, whereas LG grabbed 21.5% market share. Samsung stood at the third place with 21% share while Acer stayed at number four with 20%.

Industry Trends

There was a demand for the adoption of LED monitors over LCDs in a big way. While LCD still leads the market, the trend for the coming quarters, among other things, is LED monitors stealing the show, thereby turning out to be the growth driver for vendors like LG, Samsung, AOC, and others.

Thus taking into consideration the bundled monitor market, it is important to look at the growth in the desktop market. The desktop market did crawl up in India which impacted monitor sales also. However all in all, it pushed the bundled market by 4%.

In a first for the country, the Indian standalone PC monitor market saw LED sell-throughs touch a new level. This can be attributed to leading vendors discontinuing production of LCD based models, at the same time promoting the LED form factor. Major vendors have replaced their entire portfolio with LED monitors, especially that of the 15.6 inch screens.

Viewsonic has entirely shifted its focus from LCD to LED. LG joined the fray this year declaring that it would discontinue with the LCD monitor business in same category because of the drop in sales numbers. The drive has brought good results as was quite visible in the last quarter of FY12, with LED monitor sales overtaking LCD.

The India market for the 15.6 inch LCD monitor witnessed a drop of 45% in volume terms in Q4 2011, as compared to the previous quarter. AOC witnessed growth in its 21.5 inch LED business significantly.

Smaller vendors including Beetel, Viewsonic, and Intex also witnessed growth in a few pockets due to their lower priced offerings as compared to the major MNC vendors. Interestingly for these small vendors, close to 80% of their business was generated by the LED category.

In a nutshell, most of the vendors are phasing out their LCD monitor lines, shifting their emphasis to LED. The consumer today has a wide array to choose from, also with the add-on technology advancements.

Interestingly, consumers have shown big interest in large screen sizes. More than 45% sales was reported in the 18.5 inch category while 15 inch followed with 30% sales. Increased interest in 20 and 22 inch categories depict the choice of consumers for future trends.

Furthermore, the market saw an onrush of 3D and HD monitors. Urban consumers laid their interests in the new category. LG had started the trend in FY11 which was further extended by AOC that unveiled its 3D and IPS monitors to tap on the growing segment. BenQ is also in the market with its XL2410T 3D LED gaming monitor.

Regional Split

According to CMR, in terms of regional split, southern India contributed the maximum sales of around 37%, followed by western, northern, and eastern India. Northern and western India saw a growth in their shares during Q4 2011 due to the festive season sales extending into the month of October 2011.

Amongst the top 5 vendors, LG and Samsung saw more than 60% of their business coming from southern and western India collectively. AOC had almost equal business from all regions, while Acer and Dell received more than half of their business from southern India.

Also, the slow demand in metros forced the vendors to focus on the upcountry market and push on its channel schemes in those regions. LG conducted several lucky draw programs for its channel partners in order to revitalize the monitor business.

Price Variation and Rupee Depreciation

As far as prices of monitors are concerned, it was no different than last year in the beginning. But as the rupee eroded, most vendors were forced to increase the prices. LG had to take the hard decision despite the sluggish demand. Similarly, other vendors endeavored to keep themselves in profit.

Also adding to the price increase was the LED phenomenon which was touted to be slightly pricier. However most of the monitor prices ranged in the LCD category. Further, with LED taking centerstage, prices of most monitors are coming in consonance with LCD counterparts. It is believed that in FY13, LCD would reach an extinct level. LG's LED monitor range in screen sizes between 18.5-23 inch is priced between `7,300 to `13,000. Samsung and ViewSonic have tried to match the competition in terms of price range for their LED monitors. AOC, BenQ, etc, have tried to stay ahead of the competition in the price race for their LEDs

The Road Ahead

It is expected that the ongoing fiscal is going to be a year of revival for the vendors when they would see the re-emergence of the assembled PC market. Amid the myriad trends, LED will be the buzz of the market unlike ever before.