Westlake Village (CA) - Danny Yao, director of BenQ Taiwan, has announced that the company will be launching six to eight new LCD monitor models during the fourth quarter. The manufacturer hopes to spur growth of 17.6 percent in its sales.

Last week, BenQ launched its FP785, a 17" LCD, in novel fashion at the Milan Fashion Week, winning the iF Design Award. The brand will also launch 17- and 20" "wide-screen" LCD panels during the last quarter of the year.

Despite the small quantities of panels it is currently shipping to the market, BenQ remains confident and hopes to increase sales from 500,000-600,000 displays per month to 700,000.

The maker also expects to reach the bar of two million units sold during the fourth quarter, which is 300,000 more than the previous quarter. In another development, own-brand monitors should represent more than 30% of the units sold, or a 10-point increase over the third quarter.

Danny Yao also went against the conventional wisdom in announcing that LCD manufacturers won't be lowering their prices since demand should remain strong.

In 2004, BenQ hopes for sales of 4 million of its LCD displays. That figure is 14 perrcent higher than the predictions made in November 2003.