Jon Peddie Research - a technically oriented marketing, research, and management consulting firm in the graphics industry.

The Multiple Display Market and Consumer Attitudes

Posted by Webmaster on June 1st 2009 | Discuss
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Executive Summary

The number of users who employ a multiple-display system is increasing, and there are some natural and subjective reasons that are holding back that expansion.

• Almost everyone contacted agrees there is a need for a multidisplay system and believes he or she would realize increased productivity by having more screen space for their electronic desktop.
• Productivity estimations average to 42% improvement.
• Primary applications users expect to benefit from multi-displays are content creation, general office use, gaming, and CAD.
• Obstacles to obtaining additional displays are: price, Desk/office space, confusing to use, and heat, noise, radiation.
• Fifty-four percent of the people surveyed who are not users of multiple display systems said they plan to obtain additional displays within a year or less.
• Thirty-two percent of the people surveyed said they were using multiple displays now, and 55% of the non-users said they want to or plan to use multiple displays in the very near future.
• Forty-two percent of the mobile computer users surveyed said they use a multiple display setup, and 71% of them said they use it in an extended desktop mode.
• The number of systems that are currently being equipped with multiple displays is estimated to be 2,728,000 or 1.9% of the units shipped in 2002.
• The market is expected to grow to three-percent of the annual shipments of all types of PCs, and that may be a conservative

Lack of user awareness

There seems to be a real opportunity for differentiation by the card companies to make a big deal about multi display from one card. The card and chip companies seem to treat it as an Oh by the way. Also, it's a self fulfilling prophecy that not many people use them there fore we won't spend any money advertising them. Said one respondent, "Multiple displays could become more prevalent if the public was educated about using the feature."

Another commented, "Never viewed multiple displays in computer stores," and another said, "There is too little information and knowledgeable help in stores. I would buy a second monitor sooner if I knew more about setting-up of dual monitors on PCs."

Several of the respondent's comments indicated the survey introduced them to the concept of multiple displays. One respondent said, "Not sure I know what you are referring to—multiple display???" Another commented, "Sounds great, don't know enough to comment more." Many asked for more information about it.

The conclusion seems obvious, users will benefit from multiple displays, modern operating systems can support multi-tasking, modern computers have plenty of power to run multiple applications, and almost all graphics controllers being shipped for their last two to three years can support multiple