As if anyone needed another sign of a heavily depressed market in the just-concluded holiday selling season, new data indicates that shipments of large-area LCD panels (including both HD TV and PC monitors) in December reached their lowest levels since May 2007.
DisplaySearch reports December 2008 shipments were about 27 million units—down a whopping 24 percent from December 2007. December revenue for “large-area” LCD panels fell to $3 billion, which was down 57 percent year-to-year, and represented the lowest level since the summer of 2006.
The Austin, Texas-based analyst also found that LCD panel demand has “weakened significantly” in all three major LCD applications—HD sets, laptops and PCs.
DisplaySearch said “a combination of slow demand, the tendency of leading brands to favor internal sources of supply, and depreciation of Korean [currency] has disadvantaged Taiwanese panel suppliers, leading to loss of market share” for China. January was the second consecutive month that Korean suppliers enjoyed an LCD per-unit share globally of more than 50 percent.
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