Covid impact on monitor market in 2021
A chat with Stefan Sommer, Director Marketing & Business Management EU at MMD Monitors Displays & AOC International B.V.
Question: How did Covid-19 impact the monitor industry?
Answer: Covid has affected sales in the Monitor Industry as well as in the entire IT market due to the fact that people started to work from home, and they needed proper equipment. This stimulated the demand of the products that are able to support remote working, which was the main trend of 2021. A second trend was entertainment, as people spent time at home and bought equipment to entertain like Gaming Monitors. People were looking for the best solutions to satisfy both needs, work and gaming. Home office monitors including features like webcams, docking monitors, conference calls support and Gaming monitors performed well in terms of sales due to the pandemic. These sales increase, as you can imagine, as well as the demands.
Looking closely at Europe, all Countries performed very well, someone registered a decrease at the beginning of pandemic, but these are the top three we have seen:
1) UK
2) France
3) Italy
Question: How do you foresee the next months for the monitor market?
Answer: Following these months, we continue to see a positive trend in the monitor market. Despite that people spent more money in entertainment like going out or travelling, we still see a stable and strong monitors market when talking about B2B. In fact, B2B channels, that have been silent as offices are closed and projects put on hold, are increasing activities. Offices need to be equipped to adapt to the changing of the way of work. Flex working time would replace fix working time as the new norm. Offices now require a new set up, and this stimulates demand for B2B, so we expect a sales shift from B2C to B2B – but market should stay solid.
Question: Do you think this will create new trends in the choice of monitors and their features?
Answer: Yes, we see new technology trends taking place and catching-up people interest like high-resolutions, USB-C and gaming.
High-resolution is crucial for working in graphics but also with datasheets and when using a monitor for private life for entertainment, it’s one feature that is acquiring more and more importance. Then we have USB-C, which helps a lot, especially with the new way of working, as it is a one-cable solution that keeps the working area neat and tidy. Last but not least, there is gaming, which is in front of everybody’s eyes how it is growing.
I would add another feature that is not among the most discussed, but it is becoming fundamental for every user, which is privacy. People who follow us know we take this very seriously, we launched monitors with the pop-up webcam and then the privacy mode, so that people close to you can’t see what is displayed on the screen. Privacy mode is common in laptops, so we brought the same user experience in the monitors.
We are here, with our partners to accommodate and anticipate people’s demands, hoping to have soon the opportunity to meet all during a trade show to see closely the latest products and IT trends.