PC monitor shipments are expected to hit nearly 100 million units in 1999 and jump to 150 million by 2003, with an annual growth rate of 10 percent.

Revenues will increase at an annual 16 percent growth rate, multiplying from 33.4 billion US dollars this year to almost 60 billion dollars by 2003, US market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) reported November 1.

Both new developments in flat cathode-ray tube (CRT) technology as well as the increasing growth of flat-panel thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (LCD) are bringing new vim and vigor to the worldwide PC monitor business, IDC said.

Monitor revenues are increasing faster than shipments because unlike most other PC-related categories, IDC explained, average selling prices for monitors are rising. This development is due to the growing interest in larger, more expensive CRT monitors and the increasing penetration of LCD monitors into the overall market mix.

Despite high expectations for LCD monitors, IDC said, tube-based CRT monitors are expected to remain as the industry's workhorse, commanding just more than 85 percent of the total monitor market even in 2003.

However, LCDs are still having an enormous impact on the industry, IDC said, because they are both driving forward impressive improvements in flat CRT designs and focusing more attention on a computer system's monitor. In fact, according to IDC, monitors are expected to increase from 20 percent of a total computer system's cost to nearly 37 percent between 1993 and 2003, which has dramatic implications for both PCs and displays. (Xinhua)