According to DisplaySearch, TV shipments in North America grew an impressive 28% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2008. The report shows that more than 9.3 million TVs were shipped in Q2 2008. DisplaySearch says this is the strongest year-over-year growth since it began tracking TV shipments in 2004.
Plasma TV growth outpaced LCD TV growth for Q2 -- 35% and 30% growth respectively. DisplaySearch says Plasma growth was particularly influenced by strong initial shipments of Vizio's 32-inch plasma screens. LCD TV shipments rose by 52% year-over-year in to 7.5 million units.
The report states that most of the growth in the market was in the small to medium screen size including 19-inch, 22-inch, and 32-inch. DisplaySearch says that the 32-inch Vizio plasma accounted for full 13% of all plasma screens shipped in the quarter. Shipments for 42-inch plasma TVs rose almost 86% quarter to quarter; shipments for larger 50-inch plasma TVs were flat.
LCD technology gained market share quarter over quarter to rising from 77.5% to 79.8% of the total market for TVs. Samsung grabbed top honors as the leading brand with total shipments of 19.1% of all TVs sold in North America during the quarter. Samsung also took Sony's top spot for LCD TV unit share in the 40-inch and over segment. However, Sony rose from the number three spot in total TV shipments to the number two spot in total TV shipments, despite their unit share dropping from 13.4% to 11.7% for the quarter.
Panasonic held the lead in North America as the market leader for plasma TVs with 31.2% of the market, though the numbers dropped from 35% in quarter one of 2008. The top brands in flat-panel TV unit share growth are Samsung at number one with 18.9% unit share in Q2. Sony was number two with 10.4% unit share, Vizio was number three with 9.5% unit share, LGE was number four with 8.2% unit share, and Sharp rounded out the top five with 6.9% unit share.
Almost exactly one year ago in August 2007, Vizio was the number one brand in LCD TV unit share. This year Vizio has dropped to number five brand in LCD TVs in North America.