Pacific Media Associates (PMA) forecasts nearly 10.4 million unit shipments in 2011 for the worldwide projector market. Despite the worldwide economic volatility that led PMA to trim their outlook for the second half of this year, projector shipments this year are still expected to grow 22% over 2010. By 2015 PMA expects worldwide unit shipments to reach 39.4 million units.
While the overall projector market is maturing, and growth is naturally slowing as it becomes increasingly saturated, PMA reports there are some very lively technological features and product segments. PMA is readying their sixth biennial survey of US end users of front projectors, focusing on features like 3D and segments like pico projectors.
In the New Era (under 500 lumens) segment of the projector industry, shipments are expected to more than double in 2011 from the 1 million units in 2010. “In our 2009 survey we found some important differences between organizations and individuals regarding their intended applications (use models) after purchasing a pico projector,” continued Coggshall. “For example, presentations was the highest application cited (75%) by organizational users compared with 35% by consumers. Viewing photos was the highest application (58%) cited by individual consumers compared with 45% by organizational users. And watching video was the second-highest favorite for both groups — 60% for organizational users and 55% for individual consumers. So we have not been at all surprised to see several brands and models of digital still cameras and camcorders with embedded pico projectors selling in large quantities recently, along with projector phones used for viewing photos and videos in emerging countries,” explained PMA’s president Dr Bill Coggshall.
The Mainstream (500 to 4999 lumens) segment, including projectors used in classrooms, corporations, and homes, is expected to reach nearly 8 million units in 2011 and 12 million by 2015. Despite more austere government budgets around the world, education tenders, particularly in emerging markets, remain a healthy growth engine for the mainstream projector market. In PMA’s 2009 survey one of the hot topics in the corporate market was PC-free presentations, with users strongly favoring WiFi connectivity. And that was before the introduction of the iPad, which relies on WiFi, so some manufacturers were ready to move when the iPad started selling in large numbers.
The High-End range, including models used for large auditoriums, digital cinema, and simulation and visualization, is expected to grow from about 200,000 units in 2011 to about 430,000 units in 2015, a compound annual growth rate of 21%. Developed markets are seeing a rapid uptake of new widescreen high-end models while sales of high-end models in emerging markets is paralleling economic development and making upside demand quite promising.
