Samsung Retakes LCD TV Top Sales Spot

iSuppli says Samsung retook the crown for the top-selling LCD TV brand in the United States during October.

Market analysis firm iSuppli has released its figures for LCD TV sales in the United States during the third quarter of 2009, finding that South Korea’s Samsung has retaken the top position in sales, accounting for 16.8 percent of the market. The results knock low-cost flatscreen maker Vizio down to the number-two position, with 15.7 percent of the market—but interestingly, Samsung and Vizio remain the only brands with market shares over 10 percent.

iSuppli attributes Samsung’s resurgence to its adoption of LED backlighting technology in its LCD TV sets. “The company has been marketing these [LED backlit] sets intensely, attracting the interest of U.S. consumers,” said iSuppli principal analyst Riddhi Patel, in a statement. “Consumers like LED-backlit LCD-TVs because of their ultra-thin form factors. With Samsung cutting the prices of these sets aggressively, they now are becoming increasingly affordable for a larger number of U.S. consumers.”

During the quarter, Samsung moved a little over 1.3 million units, with Vizio managing over 1.3 million units. South Korea’s LG Electronics managed a third place finish with about 640,000 units and an 8.1 percent share for the quarter; Toshiba and Sony rounded out the top five with 7.8 percent shares, each selling just over 610,000 units. Interestingly, only LG managed to expand its market share compared to the second quarter of 2009, with a 0.7 percent increase in the number of units it sold. Toshiba’s share declined just 0.1 percent quarter to quarter, but all other players—including Samsung, Vizio, and Sony—saw quarterly declines in market share ranging from 3.1 percent (Samsung) to 4.8 percent (Vizio).