Customers use a camera connected to an LCD screen, beside a CRT monitor, at the Fidonet computer shop in Kyauktada township, Yangon, on September 18. Pic: Aung Tun Win

YANGON computer dealers say companies and home users are shunning box-like CRT monitors for flat LCD screens as the price gap between the technologies narrows.

Cathode ray tube monitors are disappearing from local shops and manufacturers are cutting back production as thin, liquid crystal display (LCD) screens surge in popularity.

“My contact in Singapore said factories there have stopped making CRT monitors. In the near future, LCD monitors will take over completely,” predicted Daw Khin Mya Htut, managing director of Citicom Computer Sales and Service in Kyauktada township.

She added that widescreen models were likely to dominate the market.
U Aung Khin Tun, director of the nearby Unique Computer Centre, said falling prices for LCD monitors were the cause of the desktop makeover.

The price difference between LCD and CRT monitors of the same size has dropped from about K150,000 to K100,000 over the past two months, he said.
The cost of larger LCD monitors is also falling. Whereas early this year a 17-inch screen would set customers back an extra K100,000, the price gap with 15-inch models is now only about K3000, U Aung Khin Tun said.

“This is good for consumers, and the best sellers now are 17-inch LCD monitors. By the end of this year, 19-inch screens will be the best sellers,” he said.

Daw Khin Mya Htut agreed. “In the future, 17-inch LCD monitors will disappear. At the moment 15-inch ones are on their way out. The price difference between 15-inch and 17-inch monitors is small, but there’s a big difference in picture quality,” she said.

LCD monitors are gaining market share worldwide as customers seek them out for their lower power consumption, quicker start-up times and space-saving designs.