LG is back at the top of the branded monitor market, according to research company IDC.

LG screens regained the top spot during Q1, 2004, with a 17.7 per cent market share, IDC said.

Samsung, which had led the monitor market for the previous two quarters, fell to second (16.4 per cent) and Philips was third position (11.9 per cent).

Overall, IDC reported the Australian LCD monitor had experienced solid growth against itself and the CRT monitor market during Q1, recording a 20.7 per cent rise sequentially in unit shipment terms.

The share of LCD monitors against CRT continued to rise, with a 53/47 LCD to CRT ratio for the quarter across both branded and whitebox models. The ratio of LCD to CRT monitors was even more disparate in the branded market with a 10 per cent gap emerging (55/45), IDC found. IDC market analyst for PC hardware, Michael Sager, said the strength of the post Y2K refresh was continuing to help the monitor market grow.

The growth was expected to continue until the end of the next financial year.

“The post GST refresh will also have an effect,” Sager said. “Refresh cycles on PCs bought by companies to manage the GST will see the monitor market grow into 2005.”

Rising demand for LCD screens had, however, caused ongoing LCD shortages, Sager said. Notebooks were increasingly moving toward 15-inch screens sizes and a booming LCD television market in Asia was also placing pressure on panel supply, he said.

Seventeen-inch LCD screens were also beginning to show signs of shortage, Sager said, as the market looked to them as an alternative to 15-inch models. Demand for 17-inch flat screens also increased for similar reasons.

Despite the positive growth figures, increasing notebook sales and the longer lifespan of LCD displays would likely cannibalise the external monitor market in the long term, Sager said.

“The market will reward vendors who looked to converge TVs and monitors for the burgeoning digital home market,” he said.