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Thin is in-this statement summed up the mood of the monitor market during FY 2004-05. While the bulky CRTs were still going strong, TFT display panels took on their CRT counterparts and witnessed good traction in the market, with good orders particularly from segments like BPO, BFSI, and retail. However, India has been very much a CRT country, with buyers still being price conscious when it comes to monitors. Given this fact, the leading trend during 2004-05: The 17-inch monitors got into the mainstream, with good demand from the home and SMB segment. Meanwhile, the 15-inch still remained the default entry-level monitor shipped with PCs. For instance, at 55% of the total volumes, the 15-inch segment remained the biggest contributor to LG's total monitor sales in FY 2004-05. The overall market size in 2004-05 was Rs 2,458 crore, most of which is already included as part of the PC value.

Market Dynamics
The leading players in the monitor space, LG, Microtek, and Samsung also had a good year. For Samsung too the LCD monitor segment made up somewhere between 6% to 8% of its monitor sales and industry analysts estimate that 90% of sales came form the 15- and 17-inch CRTs. The big question here is, will LCDs have a good growth path in India? Most of the vendors feel quite optimistic and aver that LCDs continue to see good growth, driven by a few niche segments.

As we look at the evolution of the monitor market in India, right from the VGA days, it was the PC assemblers who have been driving the demand of standalone CRTs. But as branded PC vendors gained traction, the standalone monitor market has become more of a kind of exclusive market in the peripheral space. This is because there are only a few drivers now who power the standalone monitor business: one, the PC assemblers, two, the consumers upgrading to latest technology monitors from older ones, and three, the OEM sales. With the assemblers finding the going difficult in the last two years, the standalone monitor market volumes will slow down in the days ahead. Similarly, many PC users with 14- and 15-inch monitors are also likely to upgrade in favor of 17-inch CRTs.

In FY 2004-05, a favorable development in the 17-inch space was its price hitting the 5,500 mark. Comparatively, a 15-inch vended a little lower at Rs 4,500. Meanwhile, flat screen CRTs still hovered at around Rs 8,000; volumes will only increase if prices go down a bit from this level. Similarly, LCD monitors almost reached the Rs 10,000 threshold with prices firming up at around Rs 12,000 at the end of the last fiscal. The CRTs overwhelmingly dominated the market with 90% share while LCDs made up the rest. And within the CRT space, the 15-inch monitors made up 75% of the total CRT sales, followed by the 17 inch at 15%.

As prices of CRT 17-inch monitors dropped below the Rs 5,500 mark in 2004-05, the market has seen considerable traction As per IDC, open market includes brands like Samsung, LG, Microtek, and Philips, which are sold through channels also. OEMs include monitors that carry the same brand name as the PC like HP, IBM, Dell, Apple, Acer, HCL and Wipro

Meanwhile, Philips' exit from the OEM monitor business last year marked an important change. It sold out its OEM monitor business to the global giant TPV technology for about $2 bn.

In an Indian context, HCL Peripherals is a leading name in the monitor business, offering both CRTs and LCDs. In order to garner a larger market share it appointed regional distributors and embarked on an aggressive strategy to push more volumes in the assembler segment. HCL vends display products like plasma panels, TFTs and CRTs. Meanwhile in terms of competition, vendors like ViewSonic put in place a comeback strategy. ViewSonic had been keeping a low profile in India, inspite of its state-of-the-art monitor. By the end of the fiscal there was a lot of noise from ViewSonic, driving home the point that it is a much sought after brand in the market. It just went on to show that the import duty rationalizations put forward by the government in the budgets have had an effect. Because of these changes the price difference between imported monitors and the Indian have become negligible; only about 4%. It is interesting to note that ViewSonic is pitching hard for its LCD display, which actually pans cheaper than most other brands.

The major debate in the ongoing year will surround LCDs. The thin form factor of LCDs coupled with declining price points imply a good growth year for the product during 2005-06. But, then again, India's tilt toward CRT and the price conscious mindset is a big inhibitor. Another significant trend most industry observers are looking at is the not so pleasant future of the15-inch monitors. 2005-06 will see a very sharp decline in sales and the 17-inch will become the default entry level CRT.

Meanwhile analysts are placing their bets on the BFSI, BPO and manufacturing verticals.

Shrikanth G

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