Monitors Multitask at CeBIT 2004

摘要

The largest IT fair in the world is sometimes nicknamed "Schnee-BIT" (or "Snow-BIT"), a wry acknowledgment that the March weather during CeBIT is normally unwelcoming. But this year, the first day of the show (which ran March 18-24 in Hannover, Germany) saw glorious sunshine, which seemed to mark the first day of spring. Monitor suppliers exhibiting at the show were certainly hoping that their new products and latest innovations would herald the spring of a good selling season in 2004. CeBIT 2004 marketed itself as the event for all to witness "this new digital age." The phrase was not being used in its old sense -to describe the superseding of analog products by digital versions - but to describe today's merging of IT and audio-visual products. There is much debate about how far the two industry sectors will merge. But rather than wait for the final conclusion to become clear, many monitor suppliers have decided that they need to be in the LCD-TV business despite competition from long-established TV players and the growing number of new entrants in the market - and despite the fact that the LCD-TV market is still small compared to the monitor market.