Tuesday, December 14, 2004
LCD Montitors Finally Outsell CRT
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 09:00 AM
"Sales of liquid crystal display (LCD) desktop monitors outpaced CRT monitor sales in the third quarter despite the inability of the market to adjust to lower panel pricing, according to market research firm DisplaySearch Inc. The Austin-based market research firm said LCD monitors reached 16.9 million units in sales, growing 31 percent year-over-year and 12 percent from the previous quarter to outsell CRT monitors. LCD monitor shipments are expected to reach 19.9 million units in the fourth quarter and account for 54 percent of monitor sales, the firm said. While LCD panel prices started falling mid-year, they were not reflected in monitor prices until late in the third quarter due to high channel inventories, said DisplaySearch. Thus, LCD monitor shipments fell short of expectations despite overtaking CRTs."
It doesn't surprise me that it's taken this long - for Joe and Jane consumer, LCDs look wonderful, but when buying a computer most people will spend as little money as possible. That means having a "good enough" approach, and even though a CRT will be bigger, for most people it's good enough to do word processing, email, and Web browsing. Now that the prices on LCDs have dropped so much, it will be interesting to see what happens in 2005. Hey, survey time!
It doesn't surprise me that it's taken this long - for Joe and Jane consumer, LCDs look wonderful, but when buying a computer most people will spend as little money as possible. That means having a "good enough" approach, and even though a CRT will be bigger, for most people it's good enough to do word processing, email, and Web browsing. Now that the prices on LCDs have dropped so much, it will be interesting to see what happens in 2005. Hey, survey time!
