Riding a wave of demand for its LED-backlit televisions, Vizio Inc managed to maintain the lead in the US market for LCD TVs in the fourth quarter, according to a study.
Based in Irvine, California, Vizio is partly owned by major Taiwanese TV contract manufacturer Amtran Technology Co (瑞軒科技).
Market researcher IHS iSuppli said in a report on Thursday that Vizio shipped 2.9 million LCD TVs in the fourth quarter, up 78.9 percent from 1.6 million units in the third quarter.
This translated to a market share of 27.6 percent in the US, up from 19.5 percent in the third quarter, the report said.
Vizio’s lead over second-placed South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co expanded to 7.4 percentage points in the fourth quarter, up from 2.1 percentage points in the third quarter, the researcher said.
“Vizio’s market share gain was driven by the strong consumer demand for the company’s LED-backlit sets,” Riddhi Patel, director of television systems for iSuppli, said in the report.
“Vizio has been able to offer sets with this advanced feature while maintaining competitive pricing,” Patel said, adding that more consumers are snapping up LED-backlit LCD TVs over CCFL-backlit models because of their thinner profile, superior picture quality, lower power consumption and reduced prices.
The researcher also said that Vizio padded its leadership of the US LCD TV market for the entire year last year, topped by a strong fourth-quarter performance.
Vizio enjoyed a 21.3 percent share last year, up from 18.3 percent the previous year. Its lead expanded to 2.5 percentage points over Samsung, up from 1 percentage point in 2009, the US researcher said.
Meanwhile, Taipei-based research firm WitsView — an LCD research arm of TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) — said on Feb. 10 that Amtran’s LCD TV shipments grew the most among its Taiwanese peers in the fourth quarter, owing to strong orders from Vizio.
Amtran, Taiwan’s No. 3 maker, churned out nearly 1.7 million LCD TVs in the three months ending Dec. 31, marking some 60 percent rise over the third quarter.
No. 1 maker TPV Technology Ltd (冠捷) shipped 4.35 million TVs, up 14.5 percent sequentially, while runner-up Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) saw its shipments advance 33 percent to 2 million units, WitsView said. No. 4 maker Wistron Corp’s (緯創) shipments dipped 19 percent to 1.06 million TVs, while those of Unihan Corp (永碩) rose 18 percent to 710,000 units.
Taiwan, which makes one-fifth of the world’s LCD TVs, shipped a total of 35.12 million LCD TVs last year, a year-on-year growth of 47 percent, WitsView said.
Derek Yu (尤彥博), special assistant to Amtran’s CEO Alpha Wu (吳春發), said in January that Amtran was set to ship smart TVs for Vizio in the second half, beating local competitors to be the first Taiwanese firm to supply TVs integrated with Internet functionality.
The move would see Vizio join the world’s top TV makers, including Sony Corp, Samsung and LG Electronics Inc, in the next--generation LCD TV market.
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