Monitor sales down 17 per cent: Meko

Western Europe struggled in 2010 but HP gained ground

Monitor sales have declined 17 per cent year on year, according to the latest western Europe figures from analyst Meko.

Azhar Mohd-Hashim (pictured), desktop monitor analyst at Meko, also said that things were unlikely to improve much in the sector for some time.

"As we go into Q2, conditions will remain tough for monitor brands and raising end demand is going to be key, but not the easiest in current conditions," he said.

However, the introduction of LED backlit models should help the market, he added. Users are hanging on to their monitors longer, and the increase in reliability promised by LED backlighting means that these models should last longer too.

"Improved image quality, lower power consumption and other new benefits are needed to convince users to upgrade," Mohd-Hashim confirmed.

He said the slowdown for the full 2010 calendar year was due to low end-user demand, likely to be heightened during the traditionally slow summer season. This is likely to influence pricing in the near future, he added.

Germany, the largest single-country market, declined 13 per cent year on year. Meanwhile, the economies hardest hit by euro problems dragged the region down further. Portugal, for example, saw monitor sales collapse 54 per cent year on year.

This compares with the Middle East and Africa, which saw sales rise 10 per cent in 2010 from the 2009 year, but is likely to be affected shortly by recent unrest in nations such as Egypt.

Russia continues to show good growth signs, Mohd-Hashim indicated.

Samsung remained the leading brand but even it saw its market share fall five to 20 per cent further across EMEA. HP managed to increase volume from Q4 2010, notching up another two per cent market share to take a 13 per cent share of the market for the full 2010 year.