Global shipments for diagnostic displays are expected to grow at a 5 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2018, according to a recent DisplaySearch report. Even though 21.3-inch displays made up 65 percent of revenues at the start of 2014, larger high-resolution, wide-aspect ratio displays are expected to take the lead in the next few years.
The buying pattern for displays is also changing, with developing countries expected to make up the majority of future shipment growth. Previously, most of the growth occurred in the developed countries. Now the bigger increases are mostly in China and Latin America.
Veteran radiologists who are proponents of traditional X-ray film are driving the current growth in the 21.3-inch display segment but new medical school graduates are expected to shift away from film and gray scale-only images to digital. In 2014, 43 percent of diagnostic displays were gray scale but in 2018 that will drop to 34 percent.
Radiologists presently use multiple displays to review and read images but that has the potential to hinder productivity and lead more quickly to eye fatigue. To solve that, larger and higher-resolution single screens ranging from 6 to 10 or greater megapixels (MP) have started moving to market and are projected to increase that penetration in the next few years.
Clinical review display shipments are also projected to be on the rise, growing at a 4 percent CAGR over the next four years. More than eight in 10 of the current shipments are 19 inches and 22 inches, and almost all have a 2 MP resolution, but 4 MP and 8 MP displays are expected to become more popular.
The segment that will experience the most growth is surgical display shipments, which will reach 7 percent CAGR by 2018. The 15- and 20-inch displays are currently the most in demand but 55-inch-and-larger displays may see a growth rate of 23 percent CAGR.
