DLP vs. LCD; The Battle Has Just Begun

13-Jan-05

According to the brand-new study from InterConnection, the total European market for Multimedia Projectors accounted for 265,000 in the third quarter of 2003 and will exceed the one million mark for the first time in 2004. This is an increase of 28.3% compared to 2003 Forecasts for the following years show that this trend will continue. Bearing in mind the good growth rates of the projector market, manufacturers have to decide which technology best fits their product portfolio because each segment has its own special requirements. But what are the strongest segments and which technology is most suitable?DLP technology experienced great development and improvement until it was ready for the mass market. But now the time is right to no longer concentrate solely on niche markets. It has become a serious alternative to LCD technology. Now that they can offer even better solutions for specific requirements at an affordable price level, one has to think about which channel one wants to serve with this technology. In the previous quarter, 40% of all the projectors sold in EMEA used the new DLP technology. In the home cinema market in particular, this technology has caught up very quickly in the last few years and now accounts for almost half of the market, whereas in the business sector LCD projectors are still loved and have a market share of 63%. Obviously the manufacturers of DLP projectors have put their money on the winning horse because the home cinema market is booming and will overtake the business sector in a few years.One of the advantages of DLP projectors is that they are lighter than LCDs. According to Alexander Bonat, Market Analyst for projectors at InterConnection, the average weight of DLP and LCD projectors are 3,1kg and 3,7kg respectively. This is the reason why they account for almost 45% of the Mobile Office segment in EMEA where weight is one of the most important product requirements.But LCD projectors still have their advantages in many aspects: If one has a close look at the segments where brightness is very important, like large venues or conference rooms, this technology is still dominating. The reasons for this finding are obvious: in these segments weight doesnít matter as much as in other segments. Buyers are more interested in the brightness class of the projector. Although it is already possible to produce DLP projectors that can fulfil these requirements, they canít keep up with LCD because the production costs for bright DLPs are still too high. As a matter of fact, 91% of projectors in EMEA with more than 3.000 ANSI Lumen have LCD chips inside.Finally, the question arises; what the upcoming developments in the projector market are and what does it mean to the different tech-nologies? The question is not easy to answer yet because both technologies will develop better and cheaper projectors in the future and thus the competition is getting tougher. ìConcerning the channels served, DLP technology is in the winning team because the Home Cinema and the Mobile Office segments are expected to grow most rapidly.î says Alexander Bonat. Since both technologies are competing so intensely, they are forced to invest massively in innovation of which the end users will particularly benefit. So letís see what the future bringsÖthe battle has just begunÖ