US LCD monitor shipments in the first quarter are expected to jump 620% year on year, according to figures from Austin, Texas- based DisplaySearch Inc, which claims to be the only source for quarterly LCD monitor shipment data. Around 102,000 units were shipped. LCD monitor revenues for the quarter jumped 286% to $117m. Worldwide shipments were up 623% to 683,000 for standalone and bundled monitors, generating revenues of $746m, growing 340% compared to the previous year. Over the year, some products saw price reductions of up to 47%.
Viewsonic Inc led the North American market with a 19% market share, followed by NEC Corp (18%) IBM Corp (12%) Compaq Computer Corp (9.1%) and Philips Electronics NV (8.2%). Viewsonic has the best access to supplies, with three different OEM manufacturers and four different panel suppliers, so is likely to maintain its lead despite the forecast TFT thin film transistor shortage currently on the horizon, says DisplaySearch. The TFT LCD shortage has already begun affecting LCD monitor and notebook PC prices, which are expected to increase between 5% and 10% over the next quarter.
In 1999, DisplaySearch believes the notebook PC market will be limited to 17.8m units and 13.4% growth while the LCD monitor market will be limited to 2.76 million units and 179% growth by the shortage. But what is bad news for notebook PC and LCD monitor producers is good news for TFT LCD manufacturing margins, which should rise from the low of -37% in the fourth quarter 1998 up to 40% by the fourth quarter 1999.
