Displays: Monitors Move To A Flatter Future

Within the next 18 months, the 17-inch CRT should displace its 15-inch predecessor as the monitor-of-choice on the average worker's desk, according to industry experts. And an increasing number of corporate buyers will purchase 19-inch models for their employees' use, vendor executives say.

However, despite attractive price tags and larger viewing areas, 19-inch CRTs demand a lot of desk space, says Martin Reynolds, vice president and research fellow at Gartner Dataquest, San Jose, Calif.

Partly for this reason, IT departments are frequently looking into LCD displays, that offer more viewing space for the footprint, he says.

"Today, a 15-inch LCD is available for $750 to $850. That 15-inch LCD provides the same viewable screen as a 17-inch [CRT] monitor," says Al Giazzon , vice president of marketing at NEC-Mitsubishi Display Electronics of America, Itasca, Ill.

Drops in price, increases in production and employers' growing sensitivity to health and productivity issues also are helping to create a swelling market for LCD panels, which typically offer flicker-free viewing, lower energy costs, decreased heat emissions and a smaller footprint with a large viewing area, according to executives at leading display vendors. But the day when every worker's desk will sport a sleek LCD display is still on the more distant horizon, these executives note.

"I believe the CRT monitor will still occupy a substantial market share in the display industry in the near future, but the LCD monitor is a potential product that may

eventually push conventional CRT displays out," says Thomas Han, CEO of CTX International, a City of Industry, Calif.-based division of Taiwanese manufacturer Chuntex Electronics. "Currently, the price of a 15-inch LCD is still around $800, and needs to go down to $400 for more consumers to begin adopting the technology."

In fact, of the more than 100 million monitors expected to ship this year, only about 6 million will be LCDs, Reynolds says. Next year, between 10 million and 12 million LCD monitors will ship, the research firm predicts. "On LCDs, [buyers] like everything about them, except the higher price," Reynolds says.

But manufacturers are pinning much of their hopes on this technology. "Toward the end of this year [and] the first part of next year, you'll see LCD price points being more aggressive," NEC-Mitsubishi's Giazzon says. "For the first couple of years, [LCD] was a niche product. Now we see the LCD being adopted by general business users."

"All businesses, schools and end users won't have an LCD monitor on their desks until the product corresponds more closely to their budget," Han adds. LCD displays are in a similar postion to where DVD players were a couple of years ago, he explains. Han predicts that, like DVD players, LCD displays will change from luxury to commodity items when the price hits the right point.

Prices will drop, thanks in part to increased production and decreased manufacturing costs of LCD panels, says Kenneth Lowe, director of field application engineering at Princeton Graphic Systems, Santa Ana, Calif. "When they make a CRT, the yield rate is something like 99.9 percent," he says. "With an LCD panel, the yield rate is about 65 percent. About 35 percent get thrown in the garbage. Right now, they're up to about 75 percent [yield rate]. They're working on the [manufacturing] techniques."

Opportunity For Integrators

Whether corporations choose to purchase CRTs or LCDs, IT departments will spend more time evaluating display technology,a boon for both display vendors and their integrator partners, vendor executives say.

"We think integrators' role in recommending the right visual technology is certainly as important as it was, and it might even be increasing," says Matthew Gill, senior vice president of sales and marketing at ViewSonic, Walnut, Calif.

One reason for integrators' growing role: customer confusion over

the differences between CRT and LCD monitors, experts say.

"The solution provider's role is going to be more important to us as a manufacturer because you can't explain the difference in retail," says Joe Perella, vice president of sales and marketing at MAG Technology, Irvine, Calif. "We'll be able to have some clear distinctions in the product line and clear value to the customers."

Indeed, in tandem with their solution providers, many corporations are starting to view the monitor as separate from the CPU purchase, according to industry experts. And if they're not, they should, Gartner's Reynolds says.

"[Customers] are actually putting more value on the monitor," adds NEC-Mitsubishi's Giazzon. "It gives [integrators] more opportunity...[to] recommend products. All of these factors,the move toward larger screen monitors, the move to LCDs,are increasing the amount of the [monitor's] overall value as part of the system cost."

While LCD might be the obvious choice for clients seeking a flat-panel monitor with a small fooprint, vendors such as CTX, MAG Technology and Sony are using Trinitron tubes to manufacture flat-tube CRT monitors. They are banking that some customers will want these models, which feature some of the lower-priced attraction of CRTs and the flat appearance of LCDs.

The combination of flat glass with CRT technology changes how users view their screens, says Lloyd Klark, senior marketing manager at Sony Electronics, Mahwah, N.J. , since it provides a clearer image than that found on a traditional CRT monitor. "With the flat-tube series, you can actually see how flat the screen is."

Analog To Digital

To improve the user experience, manufacturers are slowly moving away from analog interfaces to digital interfaces, Reynolds says.

"Vendors are concentrating on digital technology, as well as Internet appliances in the

coming year," CTX's Han says.

Other manufacturers,such as NEC-Mitsubishi,will provide both analog and digital capabilities in their monitors, Giazzon says. "You're starting to see this ambidextrous technology in LCDs," he says. "You'll also see it in CRTs as well."

Princeton Graphic is looking to further integrate computer monitors with TVs. The company developed a wide-screen 60-inch monitor that shows true HDTV, Lowe says. The display, which was meant to be a built-in unit, cost $6,000 and had a limited market. The company, however, is currently developing a product that will integrate the Internet and HDTV, and all the vendor's large screens are HDTV-ready, Lowe adds.

Simplicity is crucial to future monitor development. MAG Technology offers an E-Video button on its Trinitron models. The copyrighted button includes five preset settings based on light, so a user no longer has to adjust brightness, contrast or other light adjustments, Perella says. The company's DVD setting automatically sizes a DVD image to a viewer's screen, he adds.

Accuracy is key, too. ViewSonic includes Internet color-matching software on its monitors, a feature that's important in areas such as e-commerce, Gill says.

In addition to these enhancements, vendors are also looking into pure appearance. Spurred by an increased use of color by CPU makers such as Apple Computer, monitor makers are starting to offer options apart from the standard off-white or gray.

Princeton Graphic's Synergy line, for example, features a black base, clear housing and silver-colored bezel, Lowe says. And Sony buyers will soon be able to choose from a range of colors when purchasing displays, Klark says.