While times were slack for LCD TVs during 2013, the market swung sharply upwards in 2014 and times ahead look rosy too.
That’s the prediction market research company Displaysearch makes, saying that total units shot up by 10 percent in the third quarter of 2014. It estimates that total shipmets for 2014 will amount to 223 million units, a rise of seven percent over the year before.
Sales were particularly strong in North America and Asia Pacific, according to senior research analyst Paul Gagnon. He said growth was fuelled by people replacing older flat panel TVs while in Asia many had moved away from CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs to LCD TVs.
Larger screen sizes apears to be the name of the game, as vendors seek to encourage people to upgrade. And there’s increasingly strong demand for 4K LCD units – Displaysearch estimates that the market for these will grow by over 50 percent in 2015, amounting to 32 million units.
But there’s a warning to manufacturers too – Gagnon said that they have to be careful they don’t end up with too much stock during the first quarter of this year.
That might be bad news for them, but it’s likely to make the price of units cheaper for the common man and woman if there is an overstock crisis.
