Monitors

Samsung claims the crown in this category, which makes its appearance back after a year. LG came in second, followed by HP, IBM and HCL, in that order. 

It is interesting that none of the pure-play monitor vendors, including Philips, Proview, Microtek, Viewsonic, Samtel and Sony, could come into the top five, which is full of system vendors. Monitor-purchase decisions are losing their independence and seem to be getting more and more linked to the PC brand itself. We have three system vendors in the top five, and even Samsung and LG today sell complete systems under the buildurPC and the MyPC brands.

This could have far reaching implications for monitor vendors, as it is apparent that in the longer term, pure-play monitor vendors will be squeezed for market share and the way out for them would be to do bundling or OEM deals with systems vendors rather than venture alone.

Across the different demographics, there was no discernable pattern between Samsung and LG. The only thing worth noting is a comparatively strong showing by HP in the West, where it came ahead of second-placed LG, and equal to the winner,

Samsung.

Coming to brand switch and loyalty, LG has the highest loyalty, closely followed by HP. Samsung is slightly behind these two brands, with IBM being way behind. Samsung would be the biggest beneficiary of possible switches in purchase behavior, and IBM could be the biggest loser. IBM should worry about this, since it could have an impact on their PC business also and not just on monitors. Samsung is also likely to gain from brands that did not make it to the top five. Most of those who are not happy with IBM and LG are likely to switch to Samsung; while for Samsung owners who are not happy, the preferred option is HP (13 percent). Another interesting thing is that for those who own other brands (that is, not HP, IBM, LG or

Samsung) and wanting to switch, HP and Samsung are equal preferences.

The brand-switch indicates that over time, the current trend of the monitor business consolidating with Samsung and LG will continue with leading system vendors making up the rest of the pie, even in the personal space.