Pro LCD Remains Resilient Against LED in 2019

LCD Market Analysis and Commentary

According to Futuresource Consulting’s Flat Panel Quarterly Tracker, demand for commercial LCD displays continues to grow, with worldwide shipments up 8% year-on-year in 2019, to 6 million units. Market value also rose, up 3% year-on-year to $18 billion. “Despite increasing threat from below (in the form of consumer TVs), and above (from LED), the market is reporting consistent growth across virtually all market segmentations,” reported Graham Cooke, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting.

“A simplified, cheaper workflow is drawing an increasing number of independent establishments, across all verticals, to adopt a basic digital signage ecosystem. An influx of commercial displays offering standard signage solutions pushed the entry-level segment up 42% year-on-year in 2019,” added Cooke.

Whilst signage remains central to the industry’s success, interactive displays for presentation applications (including collaboration boards) are rapidly gaining traction, rising 7% in 2019. Whilst an increasing number of countries transition to IFPDs as the display of choice for classrooms, opportunity from the corporate space is mounting, “Displays still form a central part of the meeting room but are now viewed as a single aspect of a wider ecosystem. Collaboration and connectivity are the two categories driving meeting room technology – and demand for integrated UC&C tools in displays is only set to grow,” explained Cooke.

However, when looking longer-term, it is important not to ignore the threat proposed by LED. “Not only is the price of LED displays falling significantly year-on-year, they are becoming more durable and better-suited to a range of verticals currently dominated by commercial LCD – including control rooms. In fact, demand for video walls fell 2% in 2019 largely because of this impact. To counter this decline, vendors are promoting smaller bezels to minimise the impact of the joins on the image, and also outlining the significant cost benefits LCD still holds over LED,” reported Cooke.

ISE 2020 is expected to see more ‘out-of-the-box’ LED displays that are designed to compete directly with LCD in presentation applications, as LED vendors begin to gain traction on the run-rate channel.

The impact from LED, and also mounting penetration rates in core verticals, is not set to drive the commercial LCD industry into long-term decline, only hinder its growth potential. In fact, Futuresource is expecting the industry to report year-on-year growth over the next 5 years.

About the author

Graham Cooke

Graham is in the professional displays team, and in particular focuses on large format LCD displays that are used in digital signage and presentation spaces, leading the research and analysis in these areas. Additionally, he also runs the video wall service, tracking the three key technologies of Rear Projection Cubes, LCD and LED technologies for the annual report.

In previous roles in the company, Graham has worked in Data Acquisition and Pricing, Analyzer Support and in the Disc Pressing and Storage team, researching optical disc manufacturing and storage mediums. Graham Cooke joined Futuresource in 2008, after leaving Loughborough University with a BSc in Geography.