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AUSTIN, TEXAS, March 23, 2005--DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in flat panel display (FPD) market research and consulting, indicated in its latest Quarterly Desktop Monitor Shipment and Forecast Report that worldwide LCD desktop monitor shipments rebounded significantly in Q4'04, rising 26% Q/Q to 21.2M units shipped worldwide. While component pricing for LCD monitor panels had been declining since mid-2004, high supply chain inventories did not allow this pricing to reach end users until Q4'04, when it accelerated the sales of LCD monitors over CRT monitors by 1.3M units beyond previous expectations. LCD desktop monitors accounted for 56.2% of the total shipped in the quarter worldwide.

Unit volumes were up significantly, but revenues only increased 10% Q/Q due to erosion of LCD monitor street level pricing, falling to "magic" price points like $149-$199 for 15" LCD monitors, $199-$299 for 17" LCD monitors and $359-$399 for 19" LCD monitors. While only growing 10% in revenues, the industry still showed revenues from shipments of LCD monitors in excess of $8.2B, an all-time record for quarterly revenues.

Aggressive LCD monitor street level pricing had a negative impact on worldwide CRT monitor demand; volumes dropped significantly in Q4. Worldwide CRT monitor demand, which was previously anticipated to remain flat in Q4 due to continued upside demand reported from major PC manufacturers, fell 2% Q/Q to 16M units, dominated by the sales of 17" flat front CRT monitors.

Dell was the worldwide leader in the sale of desktop LCD monitors due to their ability to ship monitors with their desktop PCs. Dell shipped almost 4.2M desktop LCD monitors in Q4, a Q/Q growth of 51% in unit volume shipments with a 19.8% market share. This is almost twice as large as the #2 player in the market, Samsung, which had 10% of the worldwide unit volumes in Q4'04. Dell's growth in North America was even more impressive, where they enjoyed a 39.5% market share for Q4'04.

While Dell dominated the overall worldwide landscape, other notables included vendors such as Samsung, HP and Acer. Samsung was the #2 worldwide vendor for LCD monitor shipments in Q4'04, an impressive mark for a market, which is becoming dominated by the "bundled" sale. Samsung owed its success to its #1 market share position in the EMEA and Asia Pacific markets, #2 rank in China and #3 in North America. HP was #2 in North America; in EMEA, HP was #3 behind Samsung and LGE, but had a remarkable Q/Q growth of 52%, far ahead of the region's total Q/Q growth of 36%. Acer jumped from their Q3'04 rank as the #6 worldwide vendor to the #4 spot in Q4'04 due mainly to significant growth in unit volume shipments into EMEA and North America.

more @ http://www.displaysearch.com/press/2005/032305.htm

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