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Dell, Samsung and Lenovo record encouraging PC monitor growth despite market struggles

"Shipments were also bolstered by high volumes of renewals for devices still running Windows XP in both the public and private sectors."

Worldwide PC monitor shipments totaled 34 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), a year-over-year decline of -4.4% yet 1.3% more than forecast, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Monitor Tracker.

"For consumer-oriented vendors like Samsung and LG the holiday season helped fuel the sector," says Phuong Hang, Director, Worldwide Trackers, IDC.

"Shipments were also bolstered by high volumes of renewals for devices still running Windows XP in both the public and private sectors.

"Geographically, Western Europe, the second largest regional market in terms of units shipped, experienced year-over-year gain for the fourth consecutive quarter, recording 8.4% growth in the last quarter of 2014."

Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2015, IDC is forecasting a year-over-year decline of -10.4% in worldwide shipments to 30.3 million units - IDC also anticipates around 123 million PC monitor units will be shipped for full year 2015.

By 2019, worldwide shipments are expected to see less than 103.5 million units, as the adoption of mobile devices at lower price points is expected to continue.

Technology Highlights

LED backlight technology adoption continues to increase with 97.6% market share in 4Q14, this represents a year-over-year increase of 7.9 percentage points.

Screen size of 21.x-inches wide has held the largest worldwide share for the last nine quarters, with 22.5% share in 4Q14.

Monitors with TV tuners are expected to grow 2.6% year over year to 6.5% market share in 2015, up from 5.8% in 2014, led by LG and Samsung with a combined market share of 99% in this category.

Vendor Highlights

Dell stayed in the top position in 4Q14 with worldwide market share of 15.2% on shipments of more than 5.0 million units.

The vendor also enjoyed year-over-year growth in all regions except for Japan and Latin America.

Samsung strengthened its number 2 position with 3.1% year-over-year growth to 4.3 million units shipped.

The vendor recorded year-over-year growth in each of its top regional markets, including Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Western Europe, and Central & Eastern Europe.

HP saw more than 4 million units shipped, resulting in 11.8% share in 4Q14.

Year-over-year unit increases of 9.5% in Western Europe and 23.3% in Latin America were not enough to offset the vendor's year-over-year decline of -5.8% in the global market.

Lenovo remained fourth with more than 3.6 million units shipped and 2.2% year-over-year growth.

Lenovo sawyear-over-year gains in five out of eight regional markets, with Western Europe leading the pack at 27.5% year-over-year growth.

LG rounded out the Top 5 in 4Q14 with 9.2% market share worldwide. LG’s biggest year-over-year gains were in Western Europe and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) with 12.6% and 6.6%, respectively.