News that VIZIO plans to enter the PC market caught quite a few CES attendees off-guard, and it was a common topic of conversation at the show this week. The company announced plans to market all-in-one (AIO) and notebook PCs.
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Category Archives: Desktop Monitors
3D Sony Monitor? Aren’t They Out of the Monitor Business?
The Sony brand was once synonymous with high-end computer monitors. Graphic designers, business users, and PC game enthusiasts all wanted a big Trinitron CRT monitor. The transition to LCD monitors came before Sony had made any investments in large-area LCD production, so other brands were able to capture share in the monitor market. Despite Sony’s strong brand association for monitors, they exited this business in late 2007. Sony stayed in the PC business—notebooks, all-in-one PCs, and even tablet PCs—but hasn’t had desktop PCs or monitors in years.
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Who’s Got the Power for LCD Monitors?
With global demand for TVs remaining behind industry expectations, panel makers with fab lines to fill continue to eagerly look for ways to revitalize other large-area panel markets like monitors. Recent supply chain indications from Korean LCD manufacturers suggest a new wave of promotion for wide-viewing angle IPS (in-plane switching) and PLS (plane-to-line switching) panels for desktop monitors. As one can imagine, one way to promote these technologies is to lower the price premium over the standard TN (twisted nematic) for these arguably better technologies.
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MFMs: No Longer the “Blue Ocean” for Monitor Makers?
As we have noted, the lines between small TVs and desktop PC monitors with built-in tuners have been blurry since the advent of the flat panel TV market. Such grey areas are particularly attractive to companies that enjoy strong brand awareness in both TV and PC markets. Two of the brands that dominate the MFM (multi-function monitor) space are Samsung and LGE. While it is generally understood that most MFMs are purchased by consumers as smaller-sized TVs, MFM markets seemed like a blue ocean to these monitor businesses since other brands cannot easily enter the space.
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Double Whammy for LCD Monitor Pricing in Q2’11
By Jeff Lin – Value Chain Analyst, DisplaySearch and Chris Connery – Vice President, PC and Large Format Commercial Displays, DisplaySearch
While the desktop monitor market is far from the boom market that it once was, it is still a very large market. Even though it is mature, it is not immune to the challenges associated with high-volume, big ticket commodity purchasing. Desktop displays are caught between a rock and a hard place with the upgrade cycle from CRT to LCD essentially complete across the globe, and with only minor demand generated by multi-monitor usage, notebook/monitor bundles, and standard-to-wide upgrades. Monitors are quite necessary in the overall computing landscape and are still a big source of TFT LCD demand, but they have lost control of their own cost structure. Supply/demand dynamics for LCD TV panels have the greatest impact on LCD monitor pricing, and demand from personal computers with embedded displays (like tablets, notebooks, netbooks, and AIOs) affects both the long-term outlook for desktop displays and the near-term pricing for panels.
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