Samsung Electronics has held its dominant position in the global liquid crystal display television (LCD TV) business in the first quarter shipping 8.2 million LCD TVs worldwide, holding its own despite weak market conditions, according to a report by IHS iSuppli.
While this was down 37% from 12.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, Samsung’s decline was in line with the performance of the overall market, which dropped 35% during the quarter, says the research firm.
IHS TV technology senior analyst and head Tom Morrod said through good times and bad for the LCD TV market, Samsung is able to hold onto its lead in shipments because of the company’s global reach, competitive pricing and the internal control of its supply chain.
"Samsung has shown the capability to adjust to even the weakest of market conditions as it benefits from consumer spending on virtually any format of TV while maintaining profitable operations, which has been a major challenge for many other manufacturers," Morrod added.
The Worldwide Television Q2 2012 Market Tracker reveals that the South Korean electronics giant also maintained a positive operating margin of 5% in its overall television business and was one of only two companies within the top five to achieve this feat, illustrating the weakness in 2012 of the overall LCD TV business.
At second place, trailing Samsung by 6% points, LG Electronics posted the best performance among the world’s top five LCD TV makers during the period.
Samsung limited its sequential shipment decline in the first quarter to just 25%, allowing LG to claim 15% of global shipments, up from 13% in the third quarter, IHS iSuppli noted.
Meanwhile, global LCD TV shipments typically declined in the first quarter following the peak holiday sales season in the fourth quarter and also due to factors such as weak global consumer demand, oversupply going into the end of 2011 and repositioning by a few major brands of loss-making TV divisions.
However, the 35% sequential contraction in the first quarter was unusually sharp, above the 20 to 25% decrease more typically seen in previous years.
In another troubling sign for the LCD TV market in 2012, shipments in the first quarter were flat compared to same period one year earlier, inching down a marginal 0.4%.
Despite these setbacks, LCD TVs in the first quarter accounted for 87% of global television revenue, a record high up from 86% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
