IPS displays fly off the shelves in Western Europe as customers seek alternatives

April 14, 2014 - PRLog -- London - European unit sales of desktop displays with In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology grew year-on-year by an impressive 85% in Q1 2014 as customers increasingly search for alternatives to traditional Twisted Nematics (TN) panels, according to a report released today by research firm CONTEXT.

The market analyst’s latest stats for distribution in the first quarter of the year also revealed that IPS desktop display revenues in the region grew by 63% from the same period last year to account for just under a quarter of revenue share in Q1 2014.

Non-TN panels as a whole recorded unit growth of 77%, bringing them to 21% of the market. This segment has been heavily driven by the increasing use of smartphones and tablet PCs, which in turn built user expectations around higher quality displays in the desktop monitor market.

IPS technology was actually invented in the late 90s by Hitachi, although it has been heavily marketed of late by the likes of LG and Apple. The technology sought to improve on traditional TN displays by altering the direction of pixels to improve viewing angle and colour reproduction.

As such, it has been recommended for use by creative professionals, although today it has expanded beyond the business market and into the mainstream.

HP, Dell and LG were the top vendors of IPS displays, with HP recording unit growth of 121% year-on-year in Q1 2014, accounting for 35% of its entire display sales for the period, according to CONTEXT.

“Helping build momentum for this particular display technology is the fact that the average selling price has stabilised in recent months to around the €200 mark”, said Lachlan Welsh, senior analyst at CONTEXT.

Elsewhere, adoption rates for FHD resolution displays continued to grow, rising 26% year-on-year to comprise 63% of the market.

The market was dominated by 24in panels, which grew again by 27% over the period. Screen sizes of 21.5in and above now account for 78% of distribution in Western Europe, said CONTEXT.

However, one technology still failing to catch on in the desktop display space is touch screen panels, which are largely confined to use in the retail, healthcare and hospitality verticals.

The segment experienced moderate growth of 37% from Q1 2013 to Q1 2014 although from a small base and now accounts for just 1.2% of the monitor market.

“Concerns over productivity, as well as price and ergonomic issues remain key barriers to the widespread adoption of touch screen displays”, said Welsh, “although we expect major vendors to bring out new products in the space this year in an attempt to stimulate growth.”

In general, the desktop display market in Western Europe grew by a healthy 6.3% year-on-year in Q1 2014, after a 1.4% decline in Q4 2013.

This performance was helped by strong demand from the business segment, where revenues grew 9.2% thanks in part to desktop refreshes following the end of XP support.

Additional figures:

IPS Desktop Display unit growth year-on-year Q1/2014

UK: 77.2%
France: 117.6%
Germany: 88.9%
Italy: 142.1%
Spain: 108.4%
Switzerland: 112.7%

IPS Desktop Display ASP (Euros) Q1/2014
UK: 204.39
France: 190.27
Germany: 208.42
Italy: 166.13
Spain: 161.38
Switzerland: 223.79

Touch enabled desktop display penetration Q/2014
UK: 0.9%
France: 1.2%
Germany: 1.4%
Italy: 0.9%
Spain: 0.7%
Switzerland: 0.7%

About CONTEXT
Headquartered in London with over 140 staff in 12 countries, CONTEXT specialises in tracking technology sales and pricing across the globe. CONTEXT captures real time data from a wide range of channel sources including access to Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) members and the CONTEXT European Retail Panel (R2B), tracking over US$3bn sales across Europe on a weekly basis. CONTEXT reports provide the most accurate channel market information available today across a range of business and consumer technology products, enabling customers to assess their business operations in the light of actual sell out figures, and make business critical decisions based on hard data. Follow us on Twitter: @contextworld.com or visit our website: www.contextworld.com

Media contacts
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Funda@contextworld.com