Average selling prices are still falling in volume sales of desktop monitors.
Western Europe's largest distributors increased sales by +4% year-on-year in Q4 2016, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the European IT market analysis company. Growth in Southern Europe has been good, but the UK and Poland slipped back on last quarter's numbers.
The key areas driving growth have been low-end business monitors, predominantly 21.5-inch full-HD models, and high-end consumer monitors. The high-end consumer products pushing growth include curved screen and ultra-high resolution monitors such as WQHD and 4K, which are increasingly being used for gaming.
"Although there has been volume growth, revenues have been stagnant with no growth in Q4 2016," said Lachlan Welsh, Senior Analyst at CONTEXT. "This is partly because the high volume of low-end business monitors is depressing the average selling price. However, thankfully for the overall monitors market, sales in the high-end consumer segments are continuing to grow."
The gaming monitor market continues to grow rapidly. In the final quarter of 2016, sales were up +138% year-on-year, and market share was over 10%. The increases were driven by AMD's FreeSync monitors which accounted for nearly half of all sales in the sector.
In terms of vendor performance, HP retained its top position with an 18% share of the total market by unit, an increase of +23% on the same period last year. Samsung and Acer were the other members of the top three, with shares of 13% and 9% respectively.
Country Quarterly - Q4-16
Germany 2.5%
United Kingdom -1.4%
France 12.5%
Italy 10.1%
Spain 8.6%
Poland -14.6%
Netherlands 0.2%
Sweden -3.5%
Switzerland 7.9%
Austria -3.8%
Belgium -0.7%
Denmark 4.3%
Portugal 6.8%
Ireland 40.1%
Finland 18.8%
Norway -16.7%