China has become the world's largest market for LCD monitors for desktop PCs, a research firm said Wednesday.

China in the first half of 2009 became the leader due in part to subsidy programs that gave discounts as much as 13% to PC buyers outside of China's large cities, DisplaySearch said. But with those programs coming an end and the global economy stabilizing, the region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa will likely regain the lead in the second half of the year.

Nevertheless, China's market-leading position, albeit likely temporary, reflects the country's "presence in the worldwide landscape for IT products is here to stay," DisplaySearch said.

"While China is following the worldwide trend toward mobile computing, the region's PC business is still heavily concentrated on desktop PCs, as opposed to notebook PCs, which makes the market favorable for stand-alone monitors," DisplaySearch researcher Chris Connery said in a statement.

The U.S. and European markets today see notebook PCs and netbooks outpacing desktops in sales. Mobile PCs account for as much as 60% of shipments, DisplaySearch said.

Another unique factor of the Chinese market is the prevalence of do-it-yourself PCs. This means greater opportunity to non-PC monitor brands. For example, the top desktop monitor brand in China in the second quarter was AOC, which surpassed China's domestic PC brand leader Lenovo.

Overall, compared to the first quarter of the year, LCD desktop monitor shipments rose almost 6% in the second quarter to 40.5 million units. Among the new platforms being offered by computer makers globally are all-in-one desktops. Computer makers will likely increase their portfolio of AIOs significantly next year, DisplaySearch said.

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