European monitor market shrinks again

London, England – The EMEA desktop display market for Q2 2009 shrank again after a ‘difficult’ quarter for vendors in both the consumer and commercial sectors, according to new data from Meko.

Preliminary data shows the market dropping to 8.9 million units, a fall of 21 percent from last quarter and 24 percent year on year. The market value did not drop as steeply as volume and was down only 18 percent quarter on quarter. This was because the volumes of the smaller sizes dropped more than those of the larger sizes, so the larger sizes represented an increased proportion of the overall market.

“The market volume decline in Q2 was expected, but has taken us back to market values that were last seen nearly ten years ago,” said Paul Butler, Analyst Director at Meko. “With the continuing financial situation squeezing the Eastern European sector, and no growth in the Middle East and Africa, the result was in line with our previous forecast [but] a slowing in the rate of value drop was welcome.”

Meko’s analysis of the top 20 brands revealed that only Viewsonic in 11th place and Iiyama in 16th place managed to grow business quarter on quarter. Asus showed the biggest drop, at 67 percent, after a strong first quarter in 2009. The company says that the drop in Q2 sales reflected inventory still in the channel after a strong Q1. On an annual basis, LG, Acer, Hannspree, AOC and Iiyama all showed year on year growth.

The top five brands for volume in the second quarter were Samsung, with 22.9 percent market share, followed by LG at 16.5 percent and Acer, a close third with 15.5 percent. The final two were HP with 12.2 percent share of the volume and Dell with 9.2 percent. The market share order for value in the EMEA market was exactly the same as for volume. All the top five brands showed reduced turnover from the same period of last year.

The preliminary data also indicates that the 19″ LCD format remains the best-selling size with over 30 percent of the market, down from 36 percent in the previous quarter. 22″ LCDs were up six percent to 19 percent of the overall market and 23″ LCDs up three percent to ten percent.

15″ LCD models in both conventional and widescreen formats represented less than one percent of the market in Q2, even with the volumes combined. The biggest  drop was in 17″ LCD 5:4 format products which went down five percent to 10.5 percent of the market while the 19″ LCD 5:4 format made gains of 2 percent to finish at 18 percent of the market.

“The size split of the LCD market shows growth in the share of larger sizes while there has been a significant reduction in the smaller sizes,” added Butler.” Generally there has been a tight supply situation throughout the quarter but the market decline is a demand reduction rather than a shortage of supply.”