While Samsung remained in the number one spot in 2006, Philips fe ll off the top 5 vendor ranking, to be replaced by BenQ, which climbed up two notches from 7 th position in 2005 with 129.2 % growth . Acer and LG Electronics also grew impressively, by 62.8 % and 11.0 % over 2005, to climb to second and third spots respectively. Acer experienced significant growth in its standalone monitor business since the second quarter of 2006, winning on its low price strategy to capture market share despite its limited model range. Similarly, LG narrowed the price gap between itself and the second and third tier vendors, making its products more affordable after its channel restructuring in first half of 2006, which resulted in the vendor climbing from fifth to third place . Likom sales fe ll – 33.5 % over 2005, dropping from second to fourth position, as a lack of projects as well as faster LCD adoption ate into this CRT focused vendor’s share.

Size Trends- Outlook

CRT

17in. CRTs will continue to be the mainstream size in Malaysia moving forward. Even though the public sector may prefer the 15in. size due to budget constraints, as production of 15in. tubes ramps down, demand will be channeled to the larger 17in. size instead. Meanwhile sales of larger sizes will all but trickle to a standstill, with 19in. CRT volume very minimal, and 21/>21in. CRTs not selling from 2007 onwards.

LCD

In the LCD space, 17in. LCD sales overtook the 15in. size in 2006 by a large margin, capturing 68.4% versus just 18.2% share of the total LCD market. Most vendors have stopped selling 15in. LCDs since the end of 2006, as the price gap between the 15in.and 17in. sizes narrowed over the year, resulting in vendors not finding it profitable to sell the smaller size anymore.

19in. LCDs grew by a strong 606.0% over 2005, almost 30% of which were widescreen monitors. IDC expects healthy growth of this size moving forward, as prices likewise continue moving into a more affordable range. Microsoft’s Vista Operating System is also expected to help stimulate widescreen monitor sales, and general sales of larger LCDs.

>20in. LCD sizes will exhibit strong growth rates in 2007, off a smaller base in 2006. This will be seen especially in the 22in., and 24in. sizes. In addition to bigger expected price drops, more vendors will be launching 22in and 24in. models in the near future as a result of the increasing popularity of widescreen LCD monitors.

For more information about purchasing this research, please contact Hazmi Yusof at +603-2169-7522 or hyusof@idc.com; or Stephen Chong at +603-2169-7521 or ckchong@idc.com