NEWS GENERAL

Prior to the holiday season, the world market for LCD TV shows signs of recovery. According to DisplaySearch, the overall TV market has grown to 62 million units in the third quarter of 2011, a 3.7 per cent increase from the previous quarter and twelve per cent more than in the second. Especially the sales growth of LCD TVs to 51.5 million units (12.9% increase Y/Y) is seen as a sign of recovery of demand in the retail market.


Due to weak demand in the first half-year, TV manufacturers and brand vendors have lowered their forecasts for LCD and plasma panels, and cutting third-quarter orders. If the expected sales growth during the holiday season leads to inventory adjustments, even supply shortages are possible, because prices have plummeted strongly, with 32-inch models falling to 300 USD and 40/42-inch screens approaching 500 USD.

Sales of LCD TVs with higher refresh rates of 100/120 hertz have hardly increased; their market share is at 22 per cent. 3D TVs have only risen from nine (Q2) to eleven per cent (Q3), because price-sensitive consumers are still not willing to spend extra money on premium features, according to DisplaySearch.


Plasma dilemma: Due to declining profits, Panasonic has focused on premium large-screen TVs, which has an impact on the number of units sold. (Image: Panasonic)

The plasma TV share has shrunk to 4.1 million units, decreasing six per cent in the third quarter and 14 per cent year on year, one reason being that in the domain size of PDPs (42 to 50-inch), there is close price competition with LCD models. Two third of all plasma TVs sold were 720p models, but DisplaySearch predicts a strong trend towards full-HD resolution. With 27 per cent, the 3D share in the PDP segment is almost three times higher as in the LCD segment.