Monitors: Visually LED Revolution

The visual display segment has been undergoing a dramatic change with the form factor. Consumers have increasingly begun to prefer monitors that are sleek in design with slim size. The traditional monitor market has come a long way from CRT to plasma displays, LCD backlit square displays to the CCFL LCD displays, to energy-efficient LED technology and more recently OLED display and IPS panels. The underlying design direction is to move towards sleeker, more energy-efficient designs that give higher contrast ratios and true color reproduction.

It has been the tendency of the market to shift to new technologies and innovative products. However in the display market, this trend is not common to see technology breakthroughs. After the slow extinction of LCD, now the latest buzzword in the display market is LED, however, the technology is not entirely new from its predecessors but is based on the already proven and matured LCD technology. The transition has already begun with LED technology taking over the erstwhile LCD monitors. The transition was moderate in 2011, however industry expects the transition to be much faster in 2012.

LCDs are cheaper than LEDs, but the advantages of LED have resulted in a huge shift to the sleek and slim LED monitors in the recent times. A reduction in price of LEDs will make them the preferred choice for all customers. Even if a new technology offering new advances enters the market, it either dies mid-way (as in the case of plasma TV) or takes an extremely long time to become mainstream.

LED monitors are technically a member of the LCD monitors family. The LED technology co-exists with the LCD technology. The difference between the two is mainly in the backliting techniques which changes the picture quality characteristics dramatically.

According to Saurabh Grover, head, sales, AOC Monitor Business India, "LED monitors offer better color reproduction and sharp imaging compared to LCD monitors. Factors driving the growth of LED monitors are high-quality display, slim designs, and power saving. The gaming/entertainment enthusiasts would surely love LED technology because of its high-definition and sharp picture quality. Other than that, LED technology will find great use in medical diagnostics and architecture since these segments require study of minute details and close examination of the object in focus."

There are many new innovations coming up in the LED monitors space. Uniformity will be one of the key focuses in panel backlit technology. OLED will be the preferred technology in the various panel types and more monitors will see the transition from 2D to 3D.

Ready for the Shift

Most of the prominent players appear to be phasing out their LCD monitor lines, shifting their emphasis to LEDs completely by H1 2012. However players like ViewSonic is already out of the LCD game for the last one year. Companies like LG and AOC is also following suit.

As per Ajay Sharma, country manager, ViewSonic, "The display product market consists of monitors LCD and LED. While India is seeing a dramatic shift in volumes from LCD monitors to LED monitors, most Western markets have already witnessed this shift, and are slowly doing away with LCD. The transition from LCD to LED has to happen as most of the monitors manufactures have stopped the production of LCD. Whereas in India, the technology shift is happening late, but we feel 2012 will be the last year for LCD."

Grover points out, "AOC made a complete shift to LED range in Q1 2011 itself, starting from 15.6" LED to 27" LED monitors. Hence all our mainline models are LED monitors. However in order to meet certain tender requirements or for price-specific deals, we arranged small lots of one or two CCFL LCD monitors off and on. The percentage of LCD and LED units varies on monthly basis depending on special deals and corporate business. Till December, our LCD ratio was less than 12% of the total sales volume. By the end of Q1 2012, we plan to completely phase out the CCFL LCD monitors.

Similarly, Sanjoy Bhattacharya, marketing head, product group, LG India says, "LCD monitors continue to die off, hopefully by the end of H1 2012 we will be completely out of our LCD monitors range, wherein the entire industry will be shifting from LCD to LED display by Q3 2012. Having said that, we still sell 20% of LCD monitors range. In fact as per our planning, we will discontinue the production of LCD monitors by Q1, but we will keep some trade stock available until Q2 2012."

Vinay Shetty, country head, component business, ASUS India says, "Over 90% of transition has already happened from LCDs to LEDs. LCDs should be phased out in the next 2 years time. LCD monitors have been launched in the last fiscal. We plan to sell about 700 units this year for LCDs, since most of the transition will lead to LED."

"We have an ideal combination of both LED backlit LCDs and CCFL LCDs. Our portfolio consists of 60% of LED backlits LCDs and 40% of CCFL LCDs. We have a wide range of LED screens available in India at affordable prices. Today our customers have an option to choose from a display size range starting from 15.6" to 27" LED backlit LCD monitors," highlights Saji Kumar, director, product management, Acer India.

Diminishing Price Gap

"Over the years, the price gap has been predominately diminished. Even performance has been improved. LED monitors use less energy as compared to the LCD. LEDs can save about 25% of the energy over a LCD device. Average pricing for LED is declining, allowing LED-backlit devices to become more price competitive as compared to CCFL LCD monitors. This should allow penetration of LED monitors in tier-2 and tier-3 cities," says Kolkata based Veenith Kala, Starcomp Infotech, a dealer for Acer, LG, and Samsung.

Bhattacharya also adds, "LED is definitely the future in monitors. LED monitors-with their far better picture quality, slim design, and up to 45% power savings-are a superior value proposition for customers. With more awareness about the products and their benefits, the technology will gain wider acceptance and will slowly replace LCD. However the main challenge faced by the LED monitor is pricing. LED monitors are much more expensive as compared to LCD monitors.

Smooth Transition

It took long for the industry to migrate from CRT to LCD. In the case of LED, the transition from LCD was quite natural and smooth. Delhi based Ajaya Kumar, MD, Park Network, a regional distributor for AOC recalls, "LCD technology faced numerous challenges when it was launched, and for a long time CRT continued to challenge LCD monitors. Apart from a huge price premium, LCD picture quality was initially poor with a low contrast ratio, high response time, and high error rates. LED technology doesnt need to go through this maturity curve of a few years, so it is expected to be mainstream within a year. When LCDs were launched in India, they were priced more than 3 times higher than CRT monitors. That is not the case with LEDs."

Monitor as a product is in a driving position. Moreover, segment-wise, LED monitors are growing at a bullish pace and are expected to capture the entire segment by 2012.

In the LED category, most popular monitors are 20" LED, and growth-wise 22"+ category is leading the pack. In addition to that, multi-function monitors are on good demand today. Within the LED space, some of the emerging categorize are O-LED, foldable display, and 3D without glass, etc. These are the areas where R&D people are working hard. Also, wireless monitors are about to come to the market.

Latest Innovation

Vendors are including many innovations and features to increase the attractiveness of LCD monitors-higher resolutions, full high-definition (HD) wider screens, and multi-functional solutions, plus computing peripherals such as speakers, iPod docks, and webcams. Consumers will look for more innovations and features in their LCD monitors. Features such as full-HD and ultra-fast response time, along with the latest interfaces like HDMI and USB, will become more common in the coming days. These advances in technology are bound to grow further, and penetrate even smaller towns and cities.

Consumers are already showing interest in 3D-capable monitors. As these become more affordable, they are likely to gain wide popularity in the market. Also, the popularity of improved panel technologies such as IPS panels is expected to increase, provided the pricing becomes more affordable.

A recent innovation by AOC is the USB monitor (e1649Fwu). This is an ultra-portable, energy-efficient LED based monitor (presently only in 15.6" size) which uses a single USB cable for display as well as drawing power when connected to a PC or laptop. So we can expect more variants of such displays as well.

Power saving is the main feature that drives the growth of LED monitors. In addition, consumers also prefer to look at the sleek and slim designs coupled with good aesthetics. There are many new innovations coming up in the LED monitors space. Uniformity will be one of the key focuses in panel backlight technology. OLED will be the preferred technology in the various panel types and more monitors will see the transition from 2D to 3D.

No Profitability for Partners

Mumbai based Hitesh Mody of Jaydee Electronics says, "The transition to LED is also rapidly gaining momentum in the channel. Today, we do 75% of LED monitors. Moreover, the traction is more towards a mid-high-end monitor. But at the entry level, 15" and 18" monitors are predominately driven by LCD range of monitors. Hence when the price tipping point of LED comes at par with LED, the predominant shift happens on its own."

Kumar of Park Network says, "As far as vendors are concerned, most of them have been moving out of the LCD business. In the distribution, the same trend has started becoming visible. Slowly, the shipment of LCD has started dying off. Moreover, in terms of technology and pricing there is not much of a change. The profitability remains at par for partners. However 3D and network monitors do offer better margins than a plain vanilla LED."

E-waste of LCD Monitors?

The most important initiative with regards to handling the e-waste of monitors is a paradigm shift in the entire production from LCD monitors to LED monitors. ASUS supports for individual producer responsibility (IPR) and the involvement of the producer in the responsibility for a proper end-of-life management.

"When ASUS directs the management of its products at end-of-life, we exclude the use of incineration as an option for all vendors managing ASUS end-of-life products in any situation and prohibit the use of incarcerated labor for processing and management of ASUS end-of-life products in any situation," says Kumar.

ASUS seeks to keep the product take-back program accessible to all customers, including consumers, small businesses, and institutions, but keep it in accordance with their unique stance in the marketplace and prohibit export of end-of-life electronics, components, and scrap to any countries in violation of the Basel Convention.

On the other hand, AOC offers eco-friendly and green LED products that work on lesser energy. "Our promotion campaigns focus on creating consumer awareness about the benefits of using LED products that reduce toxic materials and waste, are mercury-free with reduced power consumption. AOC will continue to find new ways to enhance our green efforts. Consumers and businesses are giving importance to the environmental impact while making purchase decisions which will help AOC make its contribution in this regard," concludes Grover.