Retailers concerned about declining sales of monitors due to more consumers buying notebooks over a PC and monitor have welcomed the decision by Apple to make it “easy” to sell a notebook and a large monitor combination claims research group Display Search.

Retailers concerned about declining sales of monitors due to more consumers buying notebooks over a PC and monitor have welcomed the decision by Apple to make it “easy” to sell a notebook and a large monitor combination claims research group Display Search.

According to Chris Connery, Vice President, PC and Large Format Commercial Displays and John Jacobs, Director, Notebook Market Research at Display Search Apple is helping to blaze a brand new concept for retailers by offering a monitor and notebook at the same time while also making it easy to connect the two devices.

In a recent blog they said that there are many things that are unique about Apple’s new 24?W LED Cinema Display. Aside from its white-LED BLU, the new displays also employ a mini-DisplayPort connector-which is positioned to directly connect to the new MacBooks.

While DisplayPort is pin-compatible with other display connectors such as DVI (and thus requires only an inexpensive dumb connector, which Apple provides), many end-users are unfamiliar with DisplayPort, let-alone a mini version of the new VESA standard. Apple bloggers have compared the inclusion of this new (and only) connector in the 24? LED Cinema Display to prior proprietary connectors that Apple used in the past for some ill-fated displays (such as ADC, which was replaced by the more widely used DVI connector in later revisions).

They claim that retailers are reporting notebook and monitor attach rates at under 5%, and the plan by Apple to push the sale of a 24″ monitor should be applauded.
“Easy connectivity of a notebook to an external display is made easier, not only through the connector itself, but also by the fact that when the new MacBooks are connected to the external display, they allow power to be drawn directly from the display! While this is a move forward for the industry, whether it is a move forward for Apple’s market share is yet to be seen. Clearly, Apple still focuses on consumers or vertical markets within the workplace. But, with consumer spending on the decline, companies that are more focused on consumer sales over commercial sales may find the near-term environment challenging for gaining market share” Chris Connery said.