VARs Find Opportunity In High-End LCDs

Unfortunately, with the enormous amount of multimedia available these days, vendors, especially LCD vendors, are taking full advantage of the masses clamoring to access it, and are pushing a lot of similarly spec&'d LCDs, resulting in an excess of inventory from newer and smaller manufacturers. The majority of these monitors are coming from the larger TFT panel suppliers, and all it takes to make them is a simple assembly, demonstrating the ease of entry into the low-end LCD monitor market.

The current ‘saturation without differentiation&' of LCDs are leaving solution providers jaded and feeling like they have no choice but to sell entry-level LCDs based solely on price rather than brand name, quality or features.

However, advances in display technology are opening new opportunities and greater profit potential in several areas, such as larger and multiple screen configurations, which translate into better margins for the reseller. The opportunity to sell larger LCDs and increase margins on large screen products still exists since they have not become commoditized products--at least not yet.

One such greener pasture is the digital signage space. In the past, it was unthinkable for a reseller to tackle such an obstacle unless they were a pro A/V dealer, but with LCD hardware margins shrinking fast, the digital signage market can turn out to be a nice source of revenue for solution providers in need of some business.

For more on this, check out my story on the current state of affairs of the LCD market at www.crn.com/testcenter.