Industry news

Despite many research firms' pessimistic forecast on consumer LCD monitor shipments, overall LCD monitor shipments are expected to stay flat from a year ago in 2016 thanks to rising demand for enterprise and gaming monitors. Since gaming LCD monitor shipments are enjoying growth, and their ASP and profits are both higher than those of traditional models, existing gaming monitor vendors Asustek Computer, BenQ and Acer are expected to see fierce competitions from newcomers including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lenovo, AOC/Phillips in 2017, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

For gaming monitors with a refresh rate of 144Hz, Asustek, BenQ and Acer are already competing aggressively and Asustek will become the largest vendor of such products in 2016 with a market share of 35%, followed by BenQ at 22-24% and Acer at 17-19%.

Worldwide LCD monitor shipments were about 120 million units in 2015 and will remain at about the same level in 2016. But in 2015, 144Hz gaming monitor shipments were only 550,000-600,000 units, but the volume will rise to more than 1.2 million units in 2016. Although gaming models only account for around 1-2% of the overall volume, but their share in production value is about 3% thanks to their high ASPs.

For 2017, based on vendors' current orders, worldwide gaming monitor shipments are expected to rise to 2.5 million units and may reach as high as 3.5 million in 2018.

The mainstream size is 21.5-inch for the traditional monitor segment, while 23- to 24-inch is the second most popular size. For gaming monitors, 24-inch models priced between US$299-499 account for 70% of overall shipments, followed by 27-inch models priced between US$349-899 and 34- to 35-inch models. Products with displays larger than 35-inch may see demand growth, mainly contributed by North America and Europe.

Curved LCD monitors have not seen significant shipments in 2016, but their popularity is expected to grow among gamers and significant shipment growth is expected for 2017.

Meanwhile, panel shortages and rising panel prices are expected to stabilize in 2017 and key factors that will influence competition among monitor vendors and their profits in 2017 will be exchange rate fluctuations, the sources noted.