Alternatives: Displays

When it comes to desktop displays, most of Jeanene Arrington's customers want LCDs that are at least 17 inches big. And they want support for digital visual interface, or DVI. Beyond that, the biggest challenge for Arrington, manager of business development at Tampa, Fla.-based VAR Broadsource Technologies, is showing customers that all LCDs are not alike.

Arrington knows that firsthand, having disposed of one of two LCDs she used to keep on her desk because its screen dimmed significantly one year after she got it. But there are other important issues related to displays, such as a vendor's warranty support and channel initiatives.

Samsung and ViewSonic are Broadsource's preferred LCD suppliers, with AOC and NEC the chosen alternatives. Solution providers that responded to the VARBusiness Alternatives Survey feel similarly, having named ViewSonic as the market leader, and Samsung and NEC--among others--as viable options.

"Most of our clients want something that's going to last, and they're willing to pay extra to get that," Arrington says.

Other notebook vendors that VARs noted include Acer, BenQ, LG Electronics, Sony and Samsung. Of those, BenQ, LG and Samsung say they have an advantage because their parent (or sister) companies provide the LCDs that go into their monitors. In the case of BenQ, sister company AUO provides those panels.

"That gives us consistent supply," says Dinesh Pariyadath, BenQ's director of product management for LCDs. "One of the demands from VARs is they want availability and depth of products."

LG has a similar advantage and is making a stronger play in the channel, says Kim Way, the company's channel marketing manager. "We're in that not-quite-Samsung category," she says. "But we're right up there with NEC and Sony, and we're considered an alternative for Apple as well."