Projector sales grow 34 per cent year on year

Ultra short-throw, high-end, and new sub-500 lumen categories are expanded

Projector research specialist Pacific Media Associates (PMA) has released figures that suggest the worldwide front projector market grew 34 per cent in 2010 compared with 2009.

Bill Coggshall, president of PMA, said: "The hottest part of the mainstream (500-4999L) front projector market recently has been short-throw projectors, used heavily in education classrooms and including interactive models.

"And within short throw, it is the ultra short-throw range – projectors with a throw ratio, the screen width divided by the distance between the projector lens and the screen, of less than 0.38 – that is growing the fastest."

Coggshall said the ultra short-throw segment tripled in volume in 2010 from the previous year. Positive growth, however, was seen most strongly in newer categories, including high-end (digital cinema), and emerging "new era" machines with sub-500 lumens.

Sales of high-end projectors with more than 5,000 lumens grew as credit markets eased, helping digital cinema deployments and demand for projection in corporate and institutional settings, said Coggshall.