U.S. overtakes Europe in Q3 06 LCD TV sales

Austin (TX) - According a report published by Displaysearch, U.S. Q3 2006 shipments of LCD TVs eclipsed shipments in Europe.

Due in part to worse than expected sales of high-tech TVs for the World Cup, Europe’s shipment numbers dropped quarter-to-quarter from Q2 2006, allowing the US to overtake the old-world continent. Shipments of LCD TVs in the US, Canada, and Mexico rose 35% over last quarter, which is one of North America’s biggest quarter gain on record, though it was far behind the growth leader of China, which had LCD TV shipments jump 66% from last quarter.

In North America, LCD TVs now account for more than a third of the continent’s market share, at 33.7%. Europe currently stands at 33.6%.

Another first time occurence in LCD TV shipments, according to Displaysearch, is on the manufacturing side. Samsung led the market for the first time, with 13.2% unit share and 15.6% revenue share. Sharp came in second with 12.6% unit share, followed by Philips and Sony which ranked in at 12.2% and 11.1%, respectively. LG Electronics carried 7% of worldwide unit share. A handful of other less known companies aggregately accounted for almost half of LCD TV shipments last quarter, though none of them individually made an exceptionally strong mark during the quarter.

In terms of revenue, the main difference is that Sony jumped into the number two spot, losing its #1 spot from last quarter, but still earning a greater amount of sales dollars, on average, for each LCD TV unit it moved during the quarter. Both Philips and LG Electronics lost revenue quarter-to-quarter, likely a result of the less-than-expected Europe sales during the Q2 2006 World Cup season.