China to pass U.S. as second-biggest flat-panel monitor market in 2011

As desktop PCs fall further out of favor in the U.S., peripheral manufacturers are having no problem picking up the slack elsewhere.

China is poised to pass the United States in just three years to become the second-largest market for flat-panel monitors, according to a report released Tuesday by DisplaySearch. DisplaySearch is a market research company that tracks the display business.

The EMEA region (which refers to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) will continue to provide LCD monitor makers the most lucrative market, with just over 30 percent of all shipments heading there by 2011. Greater China will represent 22 percent of the worldwide monitor market, with the U.S. slipping to just under 18 percent of the market, according to DisplaySearch's latest Quarterly Desktop Monitor Shipment and Forecast Report. Asia Pacific follows at 15.6 percent, and Latin America at 12.2 percent.

The display business generated $107 billion last year, which includes LCD TVs, monitors, and notebook displays. Though monitors are the second-most profitable LCD application, they're actually the most popular in terms of number of units sold worldwide.

The desktop monitor market is driven largely by commercial purchases, as opposed to those by consumers. The U.S. is a mature market, and the upgrade process of switching to newer crops of LCD monitors is slower here than in a market such as China, where many businesses purchasing monitors over the next few years will be doing so for the first time.