PC monitor market forecast to slow after bumper 2021 - IDC

Dell and Lenovo were the only two vendors to experience growth in Q4

The global PC monitor market continued its quarterly decline in the fourth quarter of 2021 with unit shipments shrinking 5.2 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2020.

However, despite a challenging second half of the year, the market still exceeded expectations and ended 2021 with a five per cent year on year growth rate, according to IDC.

With 143.6 million units shipped globally, 2021 also stood as the best performing year since 2012, when volume was 150.3 million.

The research firm's data also showed that a weaker H2 2021 brought down the strong momentum of the first half, which had an impressive year on year growth rate of 19.4 per cent.

IDC added that challenges seen in Q3 persisted in the holiday quarter. Although mature regions slowed, volume was supported by emerging markets catching up on backlogs while global commercial volume helped to offset a softer consumer base.

However, even as monitor component supplies improved to some degree, persistent challenges from high shipping rates and Asian supply chain lockdowns remained.

IDC claims these challenges defined the latter half of the year and are expected to play well into 2022, leading to a 3.6 per cent year on year decline this year.

"2021 marked the end of the longest run for monitors, which saw an uninterrupted growth spurt from 2018 to 2021," said research manager for IDC's Worldwide Client Devices Trackers, Jay Chou.

"Whether it was businesses refreshing PCs and monitors as they moved towards Windows 10 or the pandemic pivot towards work from home, these developments gave a much-needed boost to what had been a staid industry.

"However, we now see growing saturation, inflationary pressures from the pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis further accelerating an already cooling environment in 2022, when we expect monitor shipments to shrink 3.6 per cent and then stabilise after."

Dell and Lenovo outpace the pack

The analyst's figures also found that Dell and Lenovo were the only two vendors to experience growth in Q4.

It said that, although overall commercial shipments declined 2.2 per cent year on year in Q4, the commercial portion of the market proved more resilient as it has throughout the year, showing only modest losses in H2 2021 as return-to-office trends continued to gain ground.

Companies that had better control of their supply chain or a stronger presence in emerging markets fared better, IDC claims.

Dell and Lenovo both outgrew the market and registered upper single digit growth.

Lenovo also overtook HP as the number two vendor for the quarter.

Consumer-focused vendors suffered even more as the total consumer monitor market shrank more than eight per cent year on year.