14 DAY TRIAL // The year of 2010 mostly continued the recovery rate of the IT industry that started in 2009, and it seems that, while LCDs did not perform spectacularly this year, they might just fare a lot better in 2011.
As It always happens at the end of the year, market analysts and companies themselves end up publishing financial results and outlooks.
For instance, the DRAM market is set to keep seeing declining prices for a while, while the NAND Flash segment managed to rebound somewhat, though not substantially.
Similarly, the other different sections of the IT industry either fell or grew, though the general idea is that there was an overall recovery.
Still, with economical issues just now getting serious in Europe, among other things, the market growth was not as fast as some may have hoped.
In the case of LCDs (liquid crystal displays), growth was actually mostly limited, and only LG Display succeeded in evolving by much over the past two years.
Even now, how fast the LCD market will recover in the US and on the European market remains uncertain, especially considering how the North American TV market has yet to evolve.
On the other hand, emerging market, particularly the one in China, performed well.
As such, the general impression is that the market for liquid crystal display panels will grow significantly over the course of 2011, at least according to a recent report published by Digitimes.
Nevertheless, while inventories stayed at a good level, the falling prices of CCFL-backlit displays negatively affected LED-backlit LCD sales.
Interestingly, Internet purchases grew recently in Europe, even despite the increasing frequency of snow storms, though the latter did stiffen panel sales for the year-end holidays.
No doubt the 2011 performance on the LCD front will heavily depend on how cheap LED-backlit models get, and how quick the drop in prices comes, if at all.