During a sharp seasonal downturn of the desktop LCD market in the first quarter of this year, widescreen LCDs maintained their pace of growth and emerged as the winners of the quarter. According to a report released today by Displaysearch, overall Q1 desktop LCD shipments dropped 8.1% to 28.9 million units over Q4 2005. Widescreen displays, however, showed a sequential improvement of 60.9% and account now for 4.5% of all desktop LCDs shipped - up from just over 1% in Q1 2005.

Displaysearch said that the widescreen market growth was "particularly strong in the mid-size wide category" including sizes such as 19", 20" and 21". 22" displays arrived in the first quarter and are expected to become more available in coming quarters.

Dell maintained its position as leading LCD vendor worldwide. Dell sold 19.0% of all LCDs, but saw its shipments numbers decrease by 9% during the quarter. Samsung increased its market share to 12.4%; HP came in third with 9.7%. Samsung was the only top-5 manufacturer who was able to increase its shipments on a sequential basis (+11%).