April 3, 2012 — Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s share of unit shipments in the US liquid crystal diplay (LCD) market reached a record high in Q4 2011, shows the IHS iSuppli Television Systems Service.
Samsung just spun out its LCD Business into its own corporation, Samsung Display.
During the Q4 2011, Samsung shipped 23.6% of US LCD TVs, Samsung’s largest share on a quarterly basis ever. It extended its lead over second-place VIZIO Inc. to 8.2 percentage points, 2 more than Q3. A year prior, VIZIO led Samsung by 7.2 points. Samsung’s share gain came from its triumph in the price war, said Tom Morrod, senior analyst and head of TV Technology for IHS. “The company was able to offer a range of price-competitive sets with a rich choice of features that US consumers wanted. This allowed the company to outperform the competition during the all-important holiday selling season.”
On the whole, US LCD TV market shipments spiked in Q4 2011, rising by 30.7% compared to the third quarter, and closing out 2011 at 33.4 million units for the year, up 0.4% from 33.2 million in 2010. Overall average LCD TV prices in the fourth quarter fell to about $1,032, a $16 drop from the third quarter. Lower-than-expected demand and uncertainty about the US economic recovery had caused LCD shipments to fall going into the second quarter. However, aggressive pricing helped boost sales at the end of the year–the time when holiday sales typically peak.
| Table. Q4 2011 US LCD TV top 5 brands, market share ranking (units shipped in thousands). SOURCE: IHS iSuppli March 2012. | |||||||||
| Q4 2011 ranking | Vendor | Q4 2010 shipments | Q4 2010 market share | Q3 2011 shipments | Q3 2011 percent share | Q4 2011 shipments | Q4 2011 market share | Sequential percentage growth | Annual percentage growth |
| 1 | Samsung | 2100 | 19.8% | 1505 | 18.9% | 2461 | 23.6% | 63.5% | 17.2% |
| 2 | Vizio | 2867 | 27.0% | 1008 | 12.7% | 1607 | 15.4% | 59.4% | -44.0% |
| 3 | LG Electronics | 976 | 9.2% | 781 | 9.8% | 1290 | 12.4% | 65.1% | 32.1% |
| 4 | Sony | 1049 | 9.9% | 476 | 6.0% | 832 | 8.0% | 74.9% | -20.7% |
| 5 | Toshiba | 708 | 6.7% | 725 | 9.1% | 814 | 7.8% | 12.3% | 15.0% |
| Others | 2931 | 27.6% | 3472 | 43.6% | 3413 | 32.8% | -1.7% | 16.4% | |
| Total | 10631 | 100% | 7967 | 100% | 10417 | 100% | 30.7% | -2.0% | |
Samsung’s offerings include LCD TVs with the same size and features, except for backlighting technology, for example. Samsung sells 2 LCD TV models that are identical in every way, except that one integrates the older cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlighting while the other uses the newer and more expensive light-emitting diode (LED) technology.
Samsung may be positioned to further expand its lead over VIZIO in 2012 because of another factor separate from LCD-TV market dynamics. “The recent Free Trade Agreement between the United States and South Korea will remove tariffs imposed on Korean firms selling TVs in America,” Morrod said. “Because of this accord, Samsung and fellow South Korean brand LG Electronics are poised to increase their shipments in the United States this year.”
Read more in LED TV Continues to Grow in US TV Market at http://www.isuppli.com/Display-Materials-and-Systems/Pages/LED-TV-Continues-to-Grow-in-US-TV-Market.aspx