LCD TV market shows all sorts of weaknesses

But the weakest was Dutch firm Philips, which, analyst Andrew Murray, a senior analyst at Isuppli said: "Paid the price for its lack of direct control over the supply of its LCD panels."

While Philips has a close relationship with LG.Philips LCD, "it doesn't have total control" and that makes it difficult for it to get good delivery and pricing terms some of its competitors manage.

Philips managed to drop in the top five league table from two, to three, with a 26 per cent sales decline. The first calendar quarter of the year is always a bit iffy.

Samsung, said Murray, outperformed expectations. It, he said, has good control over its production cost plus it's very aggressive marketing stuff.

According to Isuppli, Samsung remained number one in Q1 2007, Sony rose to number two, Philips dropped to number three, while Sharp and LG Electronics stayed put at four and five, respectively.

In total, 13,992,939 LCD-TV panels shipped in Q1 of this year, with Samsung at 16.7% market share, Sony at 13.44%, Philips at 15.11%, Sharp at 11.41% and LG Electronics at 7.84%. µ

L'INQ
Isuppli