If second quarter (AMJ 2005) LCD figures from researcher IDC is anything to go by, JAS quarter could perhaps be the first such period when CRTs growth will fall below zero. That is, customers who buy CRTs would be less than those in the previous quarter; many, especially businesses, would have moved to cheaper-than-ever LCDs.
LCDs still add up to only a mere 1.45 lakh of the nearly 10.4 lakh monitors sold in the second quarter. But the growth has been phenomenal: 65 percent compared to the previous quarter and over 160 percent compared to the previous year. That s at an average sales value of Rs 16,000. In contrast, CRTs grew a mere 1.4 percent from the previous quarter, at an average value of Rs 5,500.
Any guesses on the numbers that may result from a price fall of Rs 1,000 on LCDs? An industry veteran told me any vendor who sells 15-inch LCDs at less than Rs 11,000 should be making losses (two vendors briefly promoted 15-inch LCD monitors at below Rs 10,000 a few months ago). But this was just one of the many promotions from principals focused on showing LCDs as affordable. And with a Rs 10,000-PC leaving buyers with enough cash to pad up their peripherals, these factors would only have fuelled buying for homes. To make LCDs more available vendors like HCL Peripherals and BenQ decided to rope in national distributors.
The real buying came from businesses though, floored by features like in-built speakers and USB ports, technology enhancements that improved image quality and reduced response times and power consumption. Major buyers according to the research firm were banks, BPOs, broking firms, designing, animation and engineering specialists.
The LCD has evolved through an amazing transformation from displays for watches and calculators to multi-million color displays. Philips researchers have drawn parallels between LCDs with semiconductors in terms of price and functionalities.
Worldwide, share of LCD monitor shipments among displays grew from 48 percent in Q2 2004 to 65 percent in Q2 2005, while CRTs fell from 51 percent to 34 percent. We are going to see only occasional component-level price increases, and shortages, nothing to impact the ever-growing preference for LCD displays.