According to a research report published by Pacific Media Associates (PMA), the worldwide front projector market grew by 13% in Q3 2011 vs Q3 last year.
PMA divides the front projector industry into three brightness ranges, each associated with its own set of buyer types and applications: New Era, Mainstream, and High-End.
The New Era range is driven by Personal Projectors, highly mobile displays powered by “power bricks." During Q3, sales of Personal Projectors jumped by 30% on a year/year basis. More than 15 brands, including many household-name ones, were active in this segment as brightness levels climbed to 500 lumens and more fully-featured models came to market.
In the Mainstream range, year/year growth turned positive in Q3 with continued strength in the BRIC countries and a sharp rebound across most of Eastern Europe. WhileQ3 also experienced upside surprises in several countries--Australia, France, Korea, Spain, and Switzerland--economic uncertainties, weak confidence indices, and austere corporate, government, and education budgets continued to impact demand in most developed countries around the world.
Among mainstream product segments, interactive and ultra-short-throw projectors continued to outperform the market on both a unit and a revenue basis. More vendors continued to enter this space, and there was also significant activity in the market for interactive add-on modules and bundles.Q3 also saw many new 3D-ready projectors enter commercial and consumer markets at price points similar to 2D models. As more 3D products roll out this holiday season, worldwide sales of 3D-ready projectors are expected to reach about 2.5 million this year.
Sales of High-End (5000+ lumen) projectors continued to outpace the overall market. During the quarter, the worldwide d-cinema market surpassed 60,000 installations. In the traditional market for super-bright projectors, the inexorable shift continued to Wide XGA and Wide UXGA models, particularly in developed markets.
Sales of high-end models were also up in developing countries (although a significant portion of that growth is in standard resolution projectors).
