Sales of desktop monitors fall further in Q1

Volume shrinkage continues despite some life in the UK

PC monitor shipments to Europe, including the UK, declined 10.9 per cent to 10.23 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to the previous quarter.

The figures are the latest from analyst Meko's DisplayCast report for Q1.

Bob Raikes, principal at Meko, said the UK alone saw some "encouraging" growth, but all the other parts of Europe saw falls.

"We had hoped to see some recovery after a particularly poor Q4 but, sadly, there was little bounce-back in most regions," confirmed Raikes.

Consumers are spending on Apple and Samsung mobile devices instead of other consumer electronics.

"Despite interesting innovations in smartphone connectivity to monitors with MHL from some vendors, there is little or no attach rate of desktop monitors to tablets and smartphones," he added.

Monitor makers have previously done well by selling monitors for netbooks, which often had inadequate displays. However, the way the new tablet-type devices are used does not encourage monitor sales.

Raikes said that the next two years would see some increased sales, despite limited "early excitement" for Windows 8 among corporations, as XP support finally ends and more businesses upgrade to Windows 7.

"There are still some growth segments when you dig into the data, and monitor brands need to continue to innovate, especially to exploit connections to smartphones and other devices.

"The industry also needs to respond to the challenges in terms of image quality that Apple has laid down," he added.