AUSTIN,
TEXAS, August
28, 2007--DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in display market research and
consulting, today released its July LCD panel shipments results. Specifically,
the firm announced that LCD TV panel shipments hit an all-time high with 7.2
million units shipped, up 6% M/M and 72% Y/Y. In addition, notebook PC panel
shipments increased 7% M/M and grew an impressive 69% Y/Y to reach a new
milestone of more than 10 million units in July. Although LCD monitor panel
shipments have been growing in single digits on a sequential basis since April,
July results established a record high of 16.1 million units, up 1% M/M and 35%
Y/Y.
"Despite
worries that US consumer spending might decline
due to weakness in the housing market and recent credit crunch, July was a
strong month for the LCD industry-indicating that there is still a strong demand
for LCD TVs and notebook PCs," noted Jin Kim, DisplaySearch's Director of TFT
LCD Market Research. "While there were concerns of LCD TV set inventory build-up
in June and July, LCD TV panel shipments continued to post strong growth in
July. Furthermore, with back to school sales imminent for college students,
notebook PC sales should see an increase in August through September. Overall,
most producers involved in the three large-area LCD applications supply chain,
including panel suppliers, OEMs and major brands, expect strong retail demand to
continue for large area LCDs into the holiday shopping season," Kim
added.
In terms of
overall large panel shipments in July, Samsung Electronics (SEC) regained the #1
position on a shipment basis with a 20.6% share in July 2007. SEC had fallen to
the #3 position in June due to weak notebook panel shipments, but in July led
the notebook segment, displacing LG.Philips LCD (LPL) who led for 14 consecutive
months. AUO (AU Optronics) edged out LPL for the #2 position with a unit market
share of 19.8%, while #3 LPL closely chased the leaders with 19.7% unit
share.
July LCD TV Panel Shipment Highlights and
Outlook
LCD TV module shipments increased 72% Y/Y
in July due to strong growth in large LCD TV sizes. The most popular LCD TV
module size continued to be 32", with a 36.2% shipment share in July, followed
by 26" at #2 with 13.0% shipment share. Rounding out the top three was 37" with
11.3% unit share. Of note, since April 2004, 40" has led the battle against 42",
but the tide has recently turned. Beginning in June 2007, the 42" share of LCD
TV module shipments beat 40", 8.3% to 6.7%, respectively. In July, that gap
slightly widened with 42" at 9.0%, versus 7.3% for 40". The reason is due to the
success of second tier TV brands such as Vizio, who captured the #1 spot with
12.1% market share in North America in LCD TV unit shipments in Q2'07 (based on
the recently announced Quarterly
Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report, Q3'07 Datatables).
Growth was most impressive for 52" up with 2476% Y/Y growth, followed by 47" up
with 1204% Y/Y growth.
AUO
captured the #1 position for LCD TV panel shipments, with a 22.1% share followed
by LPL and Samsung with shares of 21.3% and 18.9%,
respectively.
AUO
recorded the fastest growth at 147% Y/Y, CPT grew a significant 100% Y/Y and CMO
grew 88% Y/Y. Almost all LCD TV module suppliers recorded double-digit Y/Y
growth including AUO, BOE, CMO, CPT, LPL, Samsung and Sharp. The top five
suppliers (AUO, LPL, Samsung, CMO and Sharp) continued to maintain a 90%
shipment share, which began in December 2006.
Looking
forward, DisplaySearch has upgraded its annual outlook as the result of strong
performance in June and July and a robust August outlook as LCDs continue to
take share from competing technologies. DisplaySearch now expects LCD TV panels
to rise 48% Y/Y in 2007 to 80.4M panels.
July Notebook PC Panel Shipment Highlights and
Outlook
DisplaySearch reports that notebook PC demand has
been strong all year, and seems to be accelerating. "As performance for notebook
PCs increases to a point where the majority of customers are comfortable using
the latest software, notebook PC sales will continue to increase far quicker
than desktop PCs. In fact, notebook PC panel shipment growth has significantly
outpaced monitor panels shipments for 9 of the last 12 months," Kim added.
Notebook PC
module shipments increased 69% Y/Y in July, accelerating from an already strong
June, which posted a growth of 55% Y/Y. AUO posted the strongest shipment growth
in July with 167% Y/Y, followed by Samsung with an impressive 113% Y/Y growth.
LPL and CMO both posted a brisk 71% Y/Y growth rate for
July.
The
majority of notebook PC panels shipped in July were 15.4" Wide, capturing a
46.8% shipment share. 15.4" Wide's popularity has been slipping since February
after capturing a 53.3% share in January. That is the result of growing demand
for 14" Wide notebook PCs, resulting in 14" Wide panel shipment market share
growing from just 16.0% in January to 24.6% in July. SEC overtook LPL for the #1
spot in July in this segment with 29.1% unit share, versus LPL's 28.9%. AUO
rounded out the top three with 23.0% share.
Notebook PC
panels have established record highs in Q1'07 and Q2'07 with Q3'07 expected to
result in another record. As a result, DisplaySearch has upgraded its annual
forecast to 103.2M panels.
July LCD Monitor Panel Shipment Highlights and
Outlook
LCD monitor panel shipments were up 2% M/M
and 35% Y/Y to a record-breaking 16.1 million units. Since April, LCD monitor
panel shipments have been growing at only single-digits sequentially, but have
experienced robust growth Y/Y. SEC was the largest supplier of LCD monitor
panels in July capturing 17.3% unit share, followed by AUO with 16.5% and LPL
rounding out the top three with 13.9%. All three of the top suppliers
experienced M/M declines in July, while suppliers such as BOE, Chi Mei
Optoelectronics (CMO), Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), InfoVision and Innolux
posted high single-digit gains. 17.0" LCD monitor panels took the #1 position
with 27.5% of unit shipments in July, followed by 19" Wide with 23.9% and 19.0"
with 14.6% unit share. Gaining considerable momentum was 22" Wide; a 5.0% unit
share in January more than doubled to 11.2% in July.
"Typically,
back-to-school sales have had a positive impact on LCD monitor panel shipments
in July and August. The trend of purchasing a desktop PC with an external LCD
monitor is waning and instead is shifting toward purchases that include a
notebook PC with an external monitor," Kim
concluded.
LCD monitor
panels are expected to rise 24% Y/Y in 2007 to 174M panels, although Q2'07 may
prove to be the peak quarter as a number of panel suppliers divert capacity in
2H'07 to seasonally stronger TV panels or higher margin notebook
panels.
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