Domestic sales of computer monitors slowed further in the second quarter of the year owing to sluggish demand for computers and weakening consumer purchasing power, market researcher Interna-tional Data Corp (IDC) said in its latest report.
Sales of computer monitors during the April-June period slid 23.5 percent year-on-year to 370,817 units, according to the IDC report released last week. On a quarterly basis, that meant a 15.8 percent decrease from 440,452 units in the first quarter.
Low purchasing power
"Delays in government procurement, rising credit card debts and tax season [in May] hurt consumer purchasing power in the second quarter," IDC analyst H.J. Kim said in the report.
Buying willingness was also affected by manufacturers' failure to significantly lower prices for mainstream 17-inch and 19-inch liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors to spur demand in the branded market, though prices for the same size flat panels in the "bundle market" dropped further in the second quarter.
The branded market is separate from the bundle market, where the monitors are bundled or sold together with computers. Branded monitors account for more than 80 percent of the domestic market.
"Some distributors and channel operators are conservative about inventory buildup and pricing strategy in order to avoid price erosion," Kim said.
The slow demand for PCs also affected shipments of monitors bundled with computers, Kim added.
Sluggish PC sales
Computer sales edged up a mere 0.6 percent year-on-year, or 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter, to 562.326 units in the second quarter, which fell to match IDC's forecast, made in June, of a marked expansion.
ViewSonic International Corp (
IDC also indicated that 19-inch LCD monitors replaced 17-inch models as the mainstream size last quarter. Shipments of 19-inch screens made up about half of total shipments in the branded market, up from 44 percent in the first quarter as monitor vendors cut prices by another 7.7 percent sequentially. The share of 17-inch screens fell to 41 percent from 44 percent during the same period.
Wide-screen monitors are also gaining popularity, IDC said. More than 50 percent of the 19-inch LCD monitors shipped in the second quarter were wide screens.
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
COLLABORATION: Given Taiwan’s key position in global supply chains, the US firm is discussing strategies with local partners and clients to deal with global uncertainties Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday said it is meeting with local ecosystem partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), to discuss strategies, including long-term manufacturing, to navigate uncertainties such as US tariffs, as Taiwan occupies an important position in global supply chains. AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) told reporters that Taiwan is an important part of the chip designer’s ecosystem and she is discussing with partners and customers in Taiwan to forge strong collaborations on different areas during this critical period. AMD has just become the first artificial-intelligence (AI) server chip customer of TSMC to utilize its advanced
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
RSS