KUALA LUMPUR: The personalcomputer(PC)monitor market inAsia/Pacific excluding Japan(APEJ)totalled28.1million units in thefirst half of this year, accordingtoIDC’squarterly report.

It said the 28.1 million units represented a 7.2%increaseoverthefirst half of last year. However, it fell 1.1% fromthesecondhalf oflast year.

IDCsaidinnote on Thursday this was in line withitsinitialforecast,registering a 0.9% variance.

“All countries posted a sequential decline or a flatgrowthover2H2007, except Indonesia, New Zealand, thePhilippines,SingaporeandThailand.

"Total CRT sales experienced a 31.2% decline, whiletotalLCDsalesincreased by a slight 5.1% over 2H 2007,” it added.

IDC said inflation was impacting many countries intheAPEJregionin 2Q 2008, which reduced consumer purchasing power,aswellascommercial spending in the short term.

IDC’sAsia/PacificPersonalSystems Research senior analystYoongSiat-Siah, saidpoliticalissues in several countries alsoweakenedregional demand.

“IDC believes the total PC monitormarketwillremain muted in 2H2008, with a mild 4.4% growth over 1H2008,and a3.2% growthyear-on-year,” Yoong said.

The top six PC monitor vendor rankings changedslightlyover2H2007, with AOC at third, and Dell dropping offfromthechart.These top six vendors captured just over 60% ofoverallPCmonitorsales in the APEJ region in 1H 2008, which wasamarginalincreasefrom 59.9% in 2H 2007.

These were Samsung, Lenovo, AOC,Hewlett-Packard,LGElectronics,and Acer respectively.

Of the top six vendors, AOC and Acer postedthestrongestgrowthover 2H 2007. AOC continued to strengthenitspresencewithcompetitive product pricing, as well as goodchannelcoverage.

AOC’s ability to supply CRTs, while manyvendorswerereducingavailability in some countries, alsohelpeditsperformance.

Acer turned in a strong performance in the ASEAN region.

As of 1H 2008, it said 19-inch wide screenshadbecomethemainstream LCD size in the APEJ region.Theacceptanceofwide-screen LCDs in the commercialmarkethadincreasedsignificantly in the last six months.

The wide-screen LCD market grew 32.1% over 2H2007,partiallydueto the 15-inch, 16-inch and 17-inch sizes.