Taiwan's LCD monitor market is expected to remain flat or contract slightly on year to around 1.28-1.3 million units in 2011 as a result of high penetration rate and intense competition from notebooks and tablet PCs, according to LCD monitor vendors.

The global LCD monitor market is expected to increase 6% on year to 180 million units.

The vendors noted that demand for widescreen models has been popular in the Taiwan LCD monitor market for more than 3-4 years, and with 22-inch and larger widescreen models becoming the mainstream segment, replacement demand is expected to appear in 2011.

LED-backlit monitors will also be the focus of the market in 2011, the vendors added.

LED-backlit monitor sales in the second half of 2010 improved, as the price gap between LED and CCFL models narrowed and more LED sets were available. Sales of LED-backlit models are estimated to account for about 50% of the total monitor sales in Taiwan in the fourth quarter of 2010.