Port Washington, N.Y. – Shipments of desktop LCD monitors reached a 10-year low in the first quarter of 2014, according to a new report from NPD DisplaySearch.
The 2 percent decline in monitor shipments to 34.2 million units from the same period last year was attributed in part to the effects of the penetration of portable smart devices, according to the NPD DisplaySearch “Quarterly Desktop Monitor Shipment & Forecast” report.
The total desktop monitor shipment level was at its lowest point since the third quarter of 2004, when PC monitors, including LCDs and CRTs, fell to 33.3 million units.
Desktop monitor shipments in Q1 2014 decreased 3 percent quarter over quarter and 2 percent on yearly basis, which was also the 10th consecutive decrease for this market, since the fourth quarter of 2011, DisplaySearch said. The decline actually started in Q4 of 2010, just three quarters after tablet PCs entered the market in Q1 2010.
Other factors contributing to the decline included:
• The desktop monitor market was already a very developed market, with shipments reaching a peak of 180 million in 2007.
• The effect of notebook PC penetration was moderate, since the replacement from desktop PCs to notebook PCs was gradually happening, even before tablet PCs entered the market
• Portable smart devices became the biggest disruption to the traditional usage model for personal computing devices, and these devices grabbed many end users from the traditional PC and notebook PC consumer markets.
DisplaySearch said that “with even greater penetration of mobile PCs in the market, the desktop monitor market would continue to decrease and this trend would also be increasingly difficult to reverse in the coming years.”