IDC: PC monitor sales growth slows for the first time in two years

Research agency IDC published an analysis, pointing to the first slowdown in global PC monitor sales after five consecutive quarters of growth. This is also the first decline in sales since the global epidemic in Q1 2020. Although this is not good news for manufacturers, it means that for consumers, the price of monitors may come down for some time to come.

Consumers’ demand for PC monitors has been blocked from countries around the world, and they will skyrocket after they need to work at home. Regardless of whether people buy additional desktops or laptops, in many cases, for more convenience and a better experience, even laptop users will choose to buy another monitor to connect to the laptop. IDC’s analysis also attributed the growth of PC monitors in the past two years to the home office.

Therefore, as many countries relax their lockdowns, more and more people return to the workplace, and consumers’ demand for monitors has decreased. However, because of this, the demand for commercial monitors has also increased, but sales have still fallen. According to the IDC report, the shipments of display manufacturers that focus on consumer-grade displays have decreased by 12% year-on-year, while traditional OEM manufacturers have also decreased their shipments by 2% due to supply chain and other factors.

Due to the decline in overall demand, IDC believes that the price of display components will gradually stabilize in the future, and shipments will also decrease accordingly. In 2021, PC monitor shipments will reach 143 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%. Looking forward to 2022, IDC predicts that annual shipment growth will continue to slow to 2%.