JPR Special Report

The Multiple Display Market
and Consumer Attitudes

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Executive Summary

The number of users who employ a multiple-display system is increasing, and there are some natural and subjective reasons that are holding back that expansion.

Lack of user awareness

There seems to be a real opportunity for differentiation by the card companies to make a big deal about multi display from one card. The card and chip companies seem to treat it as an Oh by the way. Also, it's a self fulfilling prophecy that not many people use them there fore we won't spend any money advertising them. Said one respondent, "Multiple displays could become more prevalent if the public was educated about using the feature."

Another commented, "Never viewed multiple displays in computer stores," and another said, "There is too little information and knowledgeable help in stores. I would buy a second monitor sooner if I knew more about setting-up of dual monitors on PCs."

Several of the respondent's comments indicated the survey introduced them to the concept of multiple displays. One respondent said, "Not sure I know what you are referring to—multiple display???" Another commented, "Sounds great, don't know enough to comment more." Many asked for more information about it.

The conclusion seems obvious, users will benefit from multiple displays, modern operating systems can support multi-tasking, modern computers have plenty of power to run multiple applications, and almost all graphics controllers being shipped for their last two to three years can support multiple

Executive Summary      1
    Lack of user awareness    1
Multi Display Market Assessment     3
    Why Multi-display?     3
    The more you can see, the more you can do         3
User Survey         6
    Methodology            6
    What are the advantages of using multiple displays?         11
    How are people using multiple displays now?         11
    Multi-display use by mobile users         13
    Applications that could be used more effectively with multiple displays        16
Non-users of multiple displays         22
    Awareness that more than one monitor can be run from a asingle PC     22
    Why haven't/aren't non-technical users taking advantage of multiple displays?    23
    Reasons for not using multiple displays           24
    Non-users want multiple displays       24
    Shipment trends         31
    Desired features       33
    Summary     34
Appendix          A-1
    Applications that benefit from a Multi-display system        A-1
    Survey         A-5
    Interesting multi-display web sites         .A-7
    Comments from survey                A-8

Table of Tables

    TABLE 1. Applications that benefit from multiple displays    17

Table of F igures

    FIGURE 1. Job function of respondents             6
    FIGURE 2. Activity of respondents         7
    FIGURE 3. Major activities of respondents         8
    FIGURE 4. Geographic distribution of respondents     9
    FIGURE 5. Geographic distribution within the U.S    9
    FIGURE 6. Categorization of users         10
    FIGURE 7. Respondents who use more than one display             10
    FIGURE 8. Advantages of using multiple displays    .11
    FIGURE 9. Place of use of multiple displays        12
    FIGURE 10. Use of multiple displays at home and work            13
    FIGURE 11. Road warriors who use multiple displays        14
    FIGURE 12. Use of multiple displays with laptops     14
    FIGURE 13. Three displays in a game             16
    FIGURE 15. A five panel multi-display system     19
    FIGURE 16. Display preference         20
    FIGURE 17. Display orientation preference of users         21
    FIGURE 18. Awareness of multi-display capability         22
    FIGURE 20. Non user's desire to use multiple displays        25
    FIGURE 21. Plans for adding more displays         25
    FIGURE 22. Non-users that plan to get multiple displays             26
    FIGURE 23. Applications non-users would employ         27
    FIGURE 24. Non-users planned applications for multiple display      28
    FIGURE 25. Expected productivity from multiple displays             29
    FIGURE 26. When non-users plan to buy         29
    FIGURE 27. Where non-users plan to buy         30
    FIGURE 28. Shipment forecast of multiple display systems            32
    FIGURE 29. Percentage of multiple displays on all types of PCs         33
    FIGURE 30. Distribution of comments              A-8

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