According to Inform senior research analyst Phil Burnham, there are a lot of players in the market including a substantial number of little-known brands, which have been popular among system builders. But it's the continued growth of the white box PC market in Australia that has created such a strong segment for monitor vendors, Burnham said.
An excited Joseph Rau, marketing manager at Samsung Electronics, claimed that the Inform data was a much truer indication of the market than previously available analysis from other researchers. He said that some vendors have distorted their position by reporting branded and OEM sales.
Burnham explained that Inform's data is based on reported monitor sales by the indirect channel, but excludes those badged by PC vendors. This excludes OEM sales and those of direct selling vendors.
In terms of market share by units, the top five for 1999 were Samsung (14.8 per cent), Mitsubishi (10.3 per cent), Philips (9.1 per cent), LG Electronics (6.7 per cent) and NEC (6.6 per cent).