TTE Regains Lead in Worldwide TV Market

"After falling to third place in the fourth quarter of 2005, TTE regained the number-one position in the global TV market in the first quarter of 2006, due to an increase in its CRT-TV shipments worldwide, and particularly in China," said Riddhi Patel, principal analyst with iSuppli Corp. TTE accounted for 11.2 percent of TV unit shipments in the first quarter of 2006, up from 9.7 percent in the fourth quarter, according to iSuppli. The rise allowed TTE, a joint venture between China's TCL and Europe's Thomson, to surpass LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which accounted for 9.7 percent and 8.6 percent of unit shipments during the first quarter. Philips retained its fourth-place rank with a 6.7 percent share of sales, while Sony Corp. rose one position to take fifth place with 5.9 percent of the market. Top-Five Television Makers Worldwide in the First Quarter of 2006 (Ranking by Percentage of Unit Shipments) Q1 '06 Rank, Q4 '05 Rank, Company, Q4 '05 Market Share, Q1 '06 Market Share 1, 3, TTE, 9.72%, 11.19% 2, 1, LG Electronics, 11.07%, 9.70% 3, 2, Samsung, 10.33%, 8.61% 4, 4, Philips, 6.84%, 6.71% 5, 5, Sony, 6.14%, 5.88% 6, 6, Panasonic (Matsushita), 5.88%, 5.28% Source: iSuppli Corp. June 2006 While overall shipments of CRTs declined in the first quarter, they still dominated the television market, accounting for 76 percent of total TV units. TTE in the first quarter led the 32-million-unit CRT TV market with a 13.6 percent share of shipments. LG and Samsung followed with 10.5 percent and 7.4 percent shares respectively. Along with TTE, Chinese OEMs Changhong, Konka and Skyworth ranked among the top 10 in the global CRT-TV market in the first quarter. All of the Chinese brands collectively accounted for 34.4 percent of the global CRT TV market. Korean brands are second, accounting for 17.9 percent of unit shipments. "With the Japanese OEMs shifting their attention to flat-panel technologies, the CRT market is open for the Chinese and Korean players to dominate by offering products that offer superior price/performance compared to flat-panel TVs," Patel said. While TTE's stronghold is in China's domestic CRT-TV market, it also was number one in North America in the first quarter due to the strength of its RCA brand. Sony held the second position in North America, while Toshiba, Philips and Panasonic all competed for the number-three slot. LG and Samsung have increased shipments to the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region; to Latin America and to the Asia/Pacific market. In the EMEA region, Samsung and LG occupied the top slots in the first quarter, with Philips following in the third position. Sharp, Sony and Panasonic led the Japanese TV market, collectively accounting for a 67 percent share in first quarter of 2006. Sharp and Sony dominated LCD-TV shipments in Japan while Panasonic accounted for more than 50 percent of plasma shipments. Sharp maintains lead in LCD-TVs, despite declining share Worldwide LCD-TV shipments amounted to 7.3 million units in the first quarter. While this represented a slight decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2005, LCDs accounted for 17 percent of worldwide TV shipments. Sharp maintained its dominance in the LCD TV market, but its share has been declining during the past four quarters. The main reason for Sharp's decline in share is the quick ramp up by other premium TV makers and the increased availability of value brands. Sharp accounted for 15.2 percent of LCD-TV shipments in the first quarter, down from 17.3 percent in the fourth. Samsung took the second position with a 12.4 percent share, followed closely followed by Sony and Philips with 12.3 percent and 12.1 percent shares respectively, as shown in Table 2, below and attached. Top-Six LCD-TV Makers Worldwide in the First Quarter of 2006 (Ranking by Percentage of Unit Shipments) Q1 '06 Rank, Q4 '05 Rank, Company, Q4 '05 Market Share, Q1 '06, Market Share, 1, 1, Sharp, 17.27%, 15.23% 2, 3, Samsung, 12.94%, 12.36% 3, 2, Sony, 15.33%, 12.25% 4, 4, Philips, 11.46%, 12.07% 5, 5, LG Electronics, 8.59%, 6.69% 6, 6, Panasonic (Matsushita)