Tech market analyst Trendforce, as reported by Techpowerup, is forecasting a remarkable 323% increase in sales of OLED monitors in 2023. This surge in demand is expected to result in over 500,000 units being sold.
According to Trendforce, the market for OLED monitors is projected to double once again in 2024, reaching over one million units. It is indeed an impressive growth rate. However, it is important to note that the overall PC monitor market is anticipated to decrease, with an estimated total of around 120 million units in the current year. This is a decline from approximately 135 million units in 2022 and over 140 million units in 2021.
Although OLED monitors are defying the current trend of declining sales in various PC components, it's important to maintain a realistic perspective. Even if the sales of OLED monitors surpass half a million units, it would still represent less than 0.5% of the overall market.
It's not particularly surprising when you take into account that the average price of OLED monitors is around $1,000. In fact, they are quite expensive, to the point where the Alienware 34-inch glossy OLED monitor, priced at $800, appears to be a relatively good deal by comparison.
Given their high prices, it's unlikely that OLED monitors would constitute a significant portion of the market. However, it's worth noting that gaming monitors as a whole make up only a small fraction of the overall monitor market. Additionally, we believe that the majority of the growth in OLED monitors can be attributed to the new generation of gaming OLEDs.
Therefore, having 500,000 or even a million units of OLED monitors could be considered a reasonably significant portion of the gaming monitor market, compared to the overall monitor market. However, the key point remains the same. Unless OLED monitors become significantly more affordable, they are unlikely to become widely adopted as mass-market products.
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There are also concerns regarding the suitability of OLED technology for PC usage. The latest burn-in testing conducted by Rtings raises particular discomfort, particularly in relation to monitors featuring Samsung QD-OLED panels.
After running the CNN news feed continuously for four months, totaling approximately 3,000 hours, on both test monitors powered by Samsung, clear indicators of permanent image retention were observed. This was likely due to the full-width bar and logo on the screen, which are ideal for causing burn-in. The results were indeed concerning.
Regardless, it is positive to observe that OLED technology is gaining momentum. However, it still has a long way to go before becoming a widely adopted display technology for PC gamers.
