- Pacific Media Associates (PMA) has released its latest projector research. According to PMA, the worldwide projector market totaled 2.47 million units in calendar Q3, with growth improving versus the previous quarter in New Era (including pico projectors and personal projectors), Mainstream, and High-End industry segments.
- In the Mainstream segment (1000-3999 lumens), virtually all of the major markets around the world registered growth versus the second quarter except Western Europe. The mature countries in Western Europe fell back in the third quarter due to overstocking of value models for major sporting events. Offsetting this typical downturn were large government projects in Russia, revitalized channel business in Turkey, and tender projects in other Middle Eastern countries.
- In the United States, third-quarter sales rose against the previous quarter but are still trending lower year/year due mainly to funding constraints in education. Seasonal gains were also registered in China and Japan, and government projects lifted Latin American projector sales to a record-high quarter. On a worldwide basis, a noticeable uptick in sales of higher-priced home theater models reflected rosier expectations for the holiday season.
- In the High-End segment (4000+ lumens), high digitization rates continued to impact d-cinema sales while manufacturers signed new deployment agreements and launched entry-level models to tap emerging markets and smaller cinemas. The rest of the High-End market continued to register healthy year/year gains, largely driven by the Olympics in the United Kingdom as well as continued strength in China.
- In the combined Mainstream and High-End segments, PMA's technology shares showed 3LCD narrowly eclipsing DLP. When factoring in the New Era segment (sub-1000 lumens), DLP maintained their share lead for the entire projector industry. New Era sales hit their highest levels of the year thanks mainly to the ramp-up of brighter pico projectors and personal projectors as well as healthy growth of modules embedded in mobile devices (DSCs, camcorders, cell phones).
