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LCD Overtaking CRT
prostoalex writes "IDC has a new report out, claiming that revenues for LCDs by the end of this year will top the CRT revenues. The only market not susceptible to the shift will be gaming and graphics-intensive applications, where the refresh rates of LCDs are not satisfactory yet."
Despite this statistic, I think it'll be a long time before CRTs become an uncommon sight on a desktop machine
It'll happen about the time you can get a LCD screen of a comparable quality to a CRT, for the same price.
I was checking out LCDs. I'd love to have one, but for the 800 bucks I'd shell out for a decent 15" LCD, I could get a top of the line 19" CRT, and a bigger desk to fit it on.
I'm no fan of CRTs, they're big, hot, and annoying. But I just dont have the cheese for a good LCD.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
First, as previously mentioned, LCDs are more expensive per monitor than CRTs, so a smaller amount of total sales will still yield the same net revenue.
Second, the new wave in desktop computing appears to be smaller, thinner machines. Almost every computer advertisement these days sells LCD displays, because they look pretty and save space, so they make for good advertising -- and as a result they sell better.
Finally, of course, this is the year of the laptop. (Steve Jobs said so, it has to be true!) I'm afraid I can't provide any hard evidence, but I think the percentage of total computers sold that are laptops is increasing at a pretty fast clip, and that of course boosts LCD revenues.
All told, there are plenty of reasons LCDs have gained in popularity; this isn't that much of a shocker.
-- shayborg
Recently my 21 inch CRT failed and I had the need to get a new monitor. I checked out a lot of different options but as it turns out i ended up with a 19 inch lcd and i think its just wonderful. The ghosting in FPS games is small but noticable but its not so hard to adjust to and i dont see any ghosting in any other apps, including viewing divx movies and watching DVDs. before you pass judgement on LCDs you should check out this latest generation. With each new series the problems become smaller and less annoying. Also i no longer need a fan in my window to cool my office off, my old crt threw a lot of heat.
Won't you be my my neighbor?
I don't know. The statistics may very well be off for the reasons you mentioned. However, I think we will be seeing much cheaper LCD's very soon as the market gains momentum (as it already is).
The thing is, once you use an LCD screen for any length of time, you just can't go back to a CRT. A CRT feels like it's burning your retinas out compared to a good LCD screen. At least for me the LCD produces much less eye strain. My Latitude's UXGA 1600x1200 screen is simply stunning.
What I'm really waiting for is more screens with at least 1600x1200 resolution. I can't believe my tiny 15" laptop screen supports it but you can't buy a 18" or 19" LCD that will do 1600x1200 for less than the price of my whole laptop. I don't understand that. Who would buy a 19" or even 20" LCD that only does 1280x1024? Ugh. A 19" LCD's screen size is pretty close to what a 21" CRT monitor offers.
Ha-ha, yes it was intended. Anyways.
> gaming and graphics-intensive applications, where
> the refresh rates of LCDs are not satisfactory yet
It's getting harder and harder these days to complain about refresh on an LCD. Granted it's not as good as a tried and true CRT, but the point is that LCD's running at native resolution are doing quite well. To the point that an average person won't notice any difference between a CRT and an LCD.
My better half owns a recent LCD. She plays plenty of games on it, from everquest to the latest sim city title to crappy web based flash games. I haven't yet taken the chance to "stress test" with a round of quake but for the most part I've been pleasantly surprised to how well the LCD responds to modern games. The images are bright, reasonably crisp, and it does all this over a crappy legacy analog vga port.
Maybe a "videophile" will find stuff to complain about, but I've found myself quite impressed by the performance an LCD can offer. These days I consider them equal to a CRT.
CRTs take a large amount of real-estate when it comes to the desk in which an employee has to work. In the long term, a farm of CRT cubicals versus a farm of LCD cubicals will consume a much larger portion of energy costs (considered company overhead). Display costs alone are appropriated from a specific budget. However, rarely does a department ever worry about the higher cost of energy until the overhead budget continues to swell. This does indeed turn the heads of bean counters.
Cheap CRTs have the notoriety of having short "brightness" spans so much that a company would rather purchase a more expensive brand name just to ensure that the longevity of the display device will be sufficient.
The company I work for alone has begun the mass upgrade of computers throughout the building. So far, it's about a 8:2 ratio of LCDs to CRTs. Even so, the CRT purchases are for individuals who require 21" screens. The average LCD purchase is for a 17" screen.
The banks in the city I work in have begun adopting LCD screens over the small CRT monitors to reduce the amount of breaks necessary by tellers to relieve eye-stress, theoretically increasing productivity.
Hospitals (a big corporate customer base) have begun the mass adoption of LCD screens because they take much less space than their CRT counterparts and produce a much smaller amount of electrical interface when turned on or off.
These are just a few examples of how LCDs are more practical and efficient - spearheading the adoption of LCDs as the display of choice.
Ayup
Dude, to me that high pitch is a sign of impending death. I've had 2 monitors die on me (CRT) and the sound was the thing I noticed both times. I won't place a bet on WHEN but I'd guess you have about 6 months after the point it gets REALLY annoying.
I love my LCD but reality is that ghosting (blurring of moving images) is very noticeable on LCDs. They are nowhere near CRTs for watching movies and such. However, for text work (99% of my time) I love it. The decision boils down to WHAT you do with your PC. If you game or do a lot of multimedia, it's not as good as a CRT. In my case, I couldn't go back to CRTs since I'd lose the "crispness" of text on an LCD.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
21in CRT's that cost $1500 three years ago are going for under $100.
Where? I'll take 3.
But seriously, that's how tech is. Your $700 LCD you buy today will be worth jack-squat in 3 years.
I havent bought a 'new' CRT in a few years, I found a guy who reconditions them and resells 'em on the cheap with a 3 year parts and labor guarantee. His work is top-notch, and I've grabbed some really choice Diamondtron monitors from him.
Though I still havent found a (decent) 21" for under 100 bucks.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
You'd rather have a P4 GHz and a cheap monitor than an LCD that is easier on the eyes? I for one am planning to buy an LCD long before I upgrade my "slow" 1.2GHz CPU. Most consumers can't see the difference between CPU speeds but they can see the difference between a CRT and an LCD even if they don't understand things like resolution or refresh rate.
I do a lot of programming, and having a good quality screen for text would help quite a bit.
The 18" LCDs available for $500 are typically of markedly inferior quality. It's like the 19" CRT monitors that are available for $150-$200--sure, they're big and cheap, but what type of quality are you getting? Or the 17" monitors that sell for below $140--most of them are NOT worth the space they take up unless their sole purpose is to allow your mom to sign onto AOL at her preferred screen resolution of 640x480.
15" LCDs of good quality can be purchased for about $500, if you want an 18" or 19" you're looking at closer to $900 and up.
Depending on what you put into the computer, you actually can get a P4 3Ghz machine (albeit crippled by a low amount of/wrong type of RAM, a small/slow HDD, cruddy video, etc. Basically--the type of machine you'd buy in a consumer-oriented ie: Mhz rules store...) for $900.
So, $900 for a 19" LCD monitor, or for half of your new P4 system (non-crippled) Unless you've got a lot of money to spare, it's not that tough of a call. Particularly since the LCD still has pretty hefty limitations when it comes to graphics/gaming, and since the quality will not rival that of a $300 19" CRT. (Although you'd be less likely to pull every muscle in your back getting it from the car to your desk.)
-Sara