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Futuresource Consulting, the specialist research and consulting company, is delighted to be the official knowledge partner for CEATEC JAPAN. The company can trace its roots back to the 1980s and provides market insights into consumer electronics, digital imaging, entertainment media, broadcast, optical manufacturing, storage media, professional IT and education technology.
With more than 70 full-time employees providing in-depth analysis and forecasts across consumer and professional electronics categories, Futuresource is able to advise on market, competitive and technological developments, providing clients with access to the information that helps produce the best possible results.

Vol.602014/4/14

Worldwide shipments of Front Projectors reach $2.63 billion

Worldwide shipments of front projectors grew reasonably year-on-year by 6% to 2.12 million units in CYQ4 2013, representing $2.63 billion in value, according to the latest research from Futuresource Consulting.

EMEA HIGHLIGHTS

In 2013, EMEA quarterly performance in CYQ4 posted a 4% year-on-year volume growth to reach 702,000 units. Although this wasn't enough to offset the year-on-year decline of 6%.

EASTERN EUROPE
Eastern Europe enjoyed the greatest year-on-year quarterly growth where 151,000 units were shipped during CYQ4 2013, a 12% increase from the year before. The end of a temporary diversion of government funding for infrastructure for the 2014 Winter Olympics allowed Russia to resume its high sell-in volumes, with a total of 780,300 units shipped - a 10% year-on-year increase. Most of this volume went into the education sector and high sell-in is expected to continue for the short term. EU member states in Eastern Europe also enjoyed growth not only due to the Q4 retail period but also as a result of using up the remainder of their 2007-2013 EU budget.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
The Middle East and Africa saw only modest growth in CYQ4 2013 with 139,000 units shipped, a 1% year-on-year growth. This was due to education projects in Saudi Arabia and UAE failing to come to fruition. However, the MEA region remains a strong opportunity long term due to its low penetration.

WESTERN EUROPE
With 412,000 units shipped during CYQ4 2013, Western Europe also enjoyed an overall year-on-year growth of 3%, largely due to strong retail sales in France and Germany, whose markets had year-on-year increases of 8% and 9% respectively. Spain also had its best sell-in since 2011 with 330,900 projectors being shipped during the last quarter of 2013. A reduced sell-in to the UK's under-represented retail market for projectors saw the country experience a 5% year-on-year decline in total sales in the final quarter.

ASIA-PACIFIC HIGHLIGHTS

The Asia-Pacific market enjoyed a 5% year-on-year increase in projector shipments during CYQ4 2013 where a total of 835,000 units were shipped. However annual totals contracted by 0.2% with 3.17 million units shipped during CY 2013 compared to 3.18 million units in CY 2012.

CHINA AND JAPAN
China's market continued its return to growth in CYQ4 with sales volumes reaching 496,000 units, an 8% year-on-year increase, which allowed the country to also experience an annual year-on-year growth of 3%. Both the easing of political tensions between China and Japan towards the end of CY2012 as well as latent demand built up during the brief dip during early 2013 played a part in this increase.

INDIA AND KOREA
Though CYQ4 is typically a weak sell-in quarter in India, its economic position and education budget delays continue to stifle demand for projectors with a substantial decline of 21% year-on-year where just 41,000 units where shipped in CYQ4 2013. Korea's heavy investment in projectors for recreation and entertainment continues with sales in the 4,000-5999 lumen segment growing year-on-year by 38% in CYQ4 2013, assisting the total market's year-on-year growth of 8% in the same quarter.

AMERICAS HIGHLIGHTS

The Americas market grew by 8% year-on-year in CYQ4 2013 following a generally poor sell-in to the region during 2013.

UNITED STATES
The United States was the key driver behind the regional growth where virtually all market segments had increased sales - a year-on-year growth of 12% in CYQ4 2013 - after weak sales in the first three quarters of 2013.

LATIN AMERICA
With the exception of Brazil, the Latin American region continues to experience low sell-in with CYQ4 2013's market declining year-on-year by 20%. Although Mexico's Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) pushed ahead with plans to equip 240,000 students with notebooks by March 2014, it had not specified any plans to equip classrooms with a main display. Import duty restrictions in Argentina continue to stifle its projector market with the country receiving just over 7,000 units in the last quarter of 2013. Elsewhere in Latin America, education projector tenders are considerably less frequent than in 2012 when smaller territories had shown encouraging signs of growth. Corporate markets also remain stagnant without a compelling incentive to trade up to more featured, higher value products.