Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - News

News

SAN FRANCISCO – The combination of accelerating PC unit growth, benign end-market PC pricing and falling component costs is creating a favorable operating environment for PC vendors, says Deutsche Bank Equity Research.

Recent IDC market data show worldwide PC shipment growth accelerated to 12.5% year-over-year in the second quarter, up 1.5 points sequentially.

DB believes PC unit growth will accelerate through the second half, and unit growth estimates will trend up as a result of continued strength in emerging markets, ongoing consumer strength and early signs of a corporate upgrade cycle.

In addition, stable PC pricing and declining component costs – DRAM, aggressive near-term hard disk drive pricing and excess CPU inventory – will translate into improving profitability for the sector, says the firm.

IDC data show that worldwide PC shipment growth on the rise, buffeted by continued robust demand in the Asia Pacific (up 20% over last year) and better-than-expected U.S. demand.

The company continues to believe PC unit growth will accelerate through year-end and expects consensus expectations for PC unit growth to trend toward 15%. Continued strength in emerging markets, consumer and the beginning stages of a corporate PC upgrade cycle in the second half will drive improving growth rates through year-end, says the firm.

HP remains the top vendor on a worldwide basis with 19.3% unit share, followed by Dell (16.1%), Lenovo (8.3%), Acer (7.2%) and Toshiba (4.1%). Dell was the top vendor in the U.S. with 28.4% market share, followed by HP (23.6%), Gateway (5.6%), Apple (5.6%), Toshiba (5.3%) and Acer (5.2%). Apple had a particularly strong quarter with growth of 26% year-over-year.

PC pricing remains benign despite the favorable component cost environment, DB says.

SAN JOSE, CA – The world flat panel displays market is set to exhibit a huge growth during the 2001-2010 period, registering sales in excess of $114.4 billion by 2010, says Global Industry Analysts Inc.

Japan and Asia-Pacific corner the largest share of the global FPD market, with a combined share estimated of more than 75% in 2006, says the firm. Asia-Pacific is forecast to emerge as the fastest growing FPD market with a CAGR of 23.5% during 2001-2010.

The plasma displays market is projected to be the major growth driver with a CAGR of 38.5% over 2001-2010.

Demand for various flat display types will remain bullish in the years ahead, according to Global Industry Analysts. The market researcher claims the demand for displays will come from integration in different end-use applications, including home entertainment systems and mobile phones.

Prices of LCDs and PDPs are sliding because of the huge investments made in fabrication capacities and advanced technologies, bringing in an increased demand for FPDs, the firm states.

LCDs are being increasingly used in notebook computers, desktop computers, cellphones, portable digital assistants and flat panel televisions with broadband compatibility. Leading electronics players including Samsung, Sharp and LG are channeling substantial resources into the production of these displays to suffice the continuously up-surging market demand, says the report.

However, the LCD market could face stiff competition from competitive flat panel displays such as organic light emitting diode (OLED) and field emission display (FED), says Global Industry Analysts.

Recently, small-size LCDs have been in short supply in major FPD markets across the globe, owing to an unprecedented demand for small-size panels in color cellphones apart from shortened supply of the large panels, continues the report.

Large-panel LCDs for desktop and notebook computers are trading at significantly low prices and prices are likely to fall further. Prices of large-area, thin-film-transistor LCDs dropped by significant amounts and are expected to continue dropping until demand recovers sharply.