The latest IDC report on the PC monitor market shows prices of branded LCD monitors in Q2 increased 7.9 percent compared to the first quarter of 2002, but IDC computing hardware analyst Imraan Ali told ZDNet Australia prices had probably peaked.
"We expect price pressures to ease as manufacturing processes scale more efficiently to meet demand," he said. "Manufacturers in Thailand and Korea are still scaling production to meet demand. It takes a certain amount of time to get production to an optimal level."
Ali said LCD monitor prices were expected to fall from here on in. "We expect them to come down, but we can't tell how fast they will come down," he said. Prices will begin to fall in the next couple of quarters, and will accelerate very quickly in the beginning of 2003, according to Ali.
The price and supply pressures are currently inhibiting the LCD market's expansion. "It's hard to quantify but it's definitely had an impact," said Ali. "They're still basically far too expensive. A general consumer looking to buy a monitor is very price sensitive."
Despite this the LCD market achieved phenomenal year on year growth, with OEM monitors (those shipped with PCs) increasing by 111.5 percent and the branded LCD monitor market increasing by 214.7 percent.
The CRT monitor market fell by 1.9 percent through the OEM channel, and the branded CRT market fell by 16 percent. This reflects a large drop in the monitor market in the last two quarters of 2001, but the market has turned and experienced growth in the first two quarters of this year, according to Ali. The CRT monitor market recorded a sequential quarterly growth of 14.6 percent.
