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Recent growth in UK sales of desktop PCs has put a positive slant on monitors in the business-to-business market, writes Christopher Kennedy-Sloane.(Microscope (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Recent growth in UK sales of desktop PCs has put a positive slant on monitors in the business-to-business market, writes Christopher Kennedy-Sloane. According to the latest figures from GfK, sales of desktop PCs grew by 3.6% year-on-year, and with new form factors such as all-in-one PCs, total desktop value growth topped 15.6%, although this shift away from traditional desktops that require monitors has not affected the monitors market negatively. The volume of monitors sold through B2B channels grew a reassuring 13.1% in September, compared to the same period last year, and total value was up 13.3%. An average selling price of £139 has remained stable for the past 13 months. One key shift has been from the 4:3 screen ratio to the widescreen form factor. In September 2009, 59% of the market was widescreen, whereas in September 2010 more than 67% of the market had shifted to the widescreen form factor, leaving only one-third of the market using the now fairly outdated 4:3. Screen sizes shifted in the monitors market as well, with 21-inch monitors now accounting for 11% of the market, up from 5.8% last September. This growth was at the expense of 19-inch monitors (sales of which were down from 34.9% to 28.3% year-on-year) and 17-inch monitors (down from 17.9% to 14.3% year-on-year). Most interesting, however, is the contrast between widescreen monitors and 4:3 monitors. Traditional 4:3 maintains 99% of its sales in 17-inch or 19-inch monitors - unchanged over the past 13 months. But widescreen monitors show less than 30% of sales in these two screen sizes, with the rest spread across screen sizes of 20 inches or greater. The 22-inch monitors were the second biggest-seller by volume in September 2010, with almost 19% of the total market, and even 23, 24 and 25-inch-plus monitors make up 15% of the business market. GfK sees 21-inch monitors as the big winner, however, showing an increase from 7.6% of the market volume in September 2009 to 14.3% in September 2010 - a near 100% increase. The final point of interest in the monitors market comes from the advent of LED technology. In September 2009, there were no LED or edge-lit LED monitors moving through the market at all. This has now shifted to almost 5% of the B2B market in September 2010 - a growth that could herald the beginning of a more serious uptake in the market as a whole. Christopher Kennedy-Sloane is account manager at GfK [email protected] www.gfkrt.com/uk (c) 2010 Reed Business Information - UK. All Rights Reserved. |