Sony who is struggling to resurrect their Bravia LCD TV brand got some more bad news overnight, when it was revealed that they have been pushed into third place in the US market behind Samsung and the Vizio brand.
According to iSuppli Sony has only sold 2.6 Million LCD TV’s this year, compared to 3.8 million by Samsung and 4.0M by Vizio a brand that was pulled out of the Australian market after a bad experience with a distributor.
The other two brands were LG with 1.739 million and Toshiba with 1.686 million units.
According to third quarter results, Samsung retook the No. 1 position back from value focused rival Vizio while Sony is struggling to hold onto third place up against LG.
According to iSuppli Samsung shipped 1.3 million LCD TVs in the US giving them 16.8% of the US market. Vizio had 15.7% share.
The last time Samsung held the top spot in the U.S. LCD TV market was in the fourth quarter of 2008. iSuppli said that Samsung began to regain momentum in the second quarter and through its focus on advanced LED-backlit LCD TVs and reduced prices for its high-end sets.
“Samsung is leading the LCD TV industry’s adoption of LED backlighting technology,” stated Riddhi Patel, iSuppli television systems principal analyst. “The company has been marketing these sets intensely, attracting the interest of consumers. 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 consumers.”
LED-backlit sets accounted for 3.7 percent of total U.S. LCD TV shipments in the third quarter, up from 2.1 percent in the second, iSuppli said.
In Australia Sony who have never made a profit from their Bravia LCD TV’s has resorted to giving away 3 year warranties and PS3 gaming consoles in an effort to win back sales from Samsung who earlier this year had 42% of the flat panel TV market Vs 14% for Sony.
In recent weeks Sony has lifted their share to over 20% due to discounting a free offers.
