San Juan Capistrano, California, USA – May 7, 2014. PMA Research, the worldwide market information experts on front projectors, has just published their latest research findings on the worldwide projector market. Total volume topped 2.0 million in the first calendar quarter of 2014 with most advanced and emerging countries registering year/year growth.

In the U.S. market, sales of interactive projectors and short-throw projectors registered double-digit gains over last year’s first quarter. “Short-throw and interactive projectors are increasingly penetrating the K-12 market,” said Linda Norton, VP of PMA Research.  “And despite the focus on tablets in education, the strong performance in the first quarter for these types of projectors indicates some recovery in K-12 and confirms the findings from PMA’s recent survey of the K-12 market.”

In Europe, widescreen resolutions climbed to another high in share during the first quarter, and represented 40% of the volume mix within the mainstream and high-end segments. That was due in large part to post-holiday sales thru traditional home theater channels in the region, strength in well-developed retail channels in Germany, increasing penetration of lower-priced 1080p and Wide XGA projectors within corporate and education markets, and a continued shift to widescreen in the high-end projector market.

Although widescreen penetration is much lower in Asia, the overall projector market there improved again on a year/year basis. In the mainstream and high-end segments, China registered a third straight quarter of double-digit gains. However, more buoyant growth in China has recently shifted from short-throw projectors to value-priced SVGA and XGA standard-throw projectors. Elsewhere in Asia, the troubled economy in India continued to negatively impact the projector market while sales in Japan registered their sharpest year/year increase in many quarters ahead of April’s higher value-added tax.

The consumer home entertainment market also continued to grow solidly in China as it did on a worldwide basis. Reflecting the general uptick in worldwide industry performance during the quarter, the high-end home theater market also performed well as sales of 4K and 1080p projectors selling for $5,000 and higher nearly doubled from last year’s first quarter.

In the digital cinema market, first-quarter sales pushed cumulative worldwide shipments over 120,000. While high digitization rates continued to impact sales in advanced countries, China and Latin America continued to outperform the market thanks in large part to more economical models helping exhibitors in these countries make the digital transition. In the rest of the high-end market, virtually all sub-regions of the world and all brightness ranges experienced growth. As the large venue projector market is generally immune from the threat of sub-$1,000 flat panel displays, the improved worldwide economic performance translated into significantly higher year/year spending on projectors used in university auditoriums, public venue entertainment, and rental and staging. Adding to the dynamic high-end projector market is the forthcoming launch of more laser-based models.

About PMA Research

PMA Research specializes in worldwide front projector market information, including High-End projectors, Mainstream projectors, and Pico and Personal projectors.

Their Industry Service family of publications provides detailed worldwide quarterly updates (sell-in data and forecasts) on front projector markets, and biennial Web surveys of North American dealers and end users (including organizations and individual consumers). Their Tracking Service family of monthly reports offers timely sell-through data and analysis on unit sales, true volume-weighted street prices, and inventories of front projectors sold by leading North American retailers, resellers, and distributors.

PMA Research was formerly Pacific Media Associates, which was established by Dr. William Coggshall. Dr. Coggshall was a co-founder of Dataquest (now part of Gartner) and helped start the syndicated high-tech market information business. PMA Research has offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. The company’s US headquarters is located at 25852 Avenida Cabrillo, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. Phone: +1 (949) 493-4601.  www.pmaresearch.com