DisplaySearch forecast that as many as 24 million liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TVs will be sold in China this year, or 10 million units more than last year, after 5 million units sold in the first quarter of this year, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday.
“The Chinese market’s demand for LCD TVs this year will definitely exceed our earlier forecast of about 20 million units,” the paper quoted David Hsieh (謝勤益), vice president of market research firm DisplaySearch’s Greater China division, as saying.
“For a single market’s growth rate, an increase [in shipments] of more than 10 million units a year, and a single year’s growth of 84 percent, are both outperforming figures,” Hsieh said.
He also said that fueled by the household electronics subsidy program, China’s LCD TV market has performed particularly well, with 540,000 units sold within two weeks during the Lunar New Year holiday in January, up 76 percent from the holiday period last year.
Last year was a crucial year in terms of changing brand market shares, Hsieh said. Leading Chinese brands, including Hisense Group (海信集團), Konka Group Co (康佳集團) and Skyworth Group (創維集團), had a combined LCD TV market share of nearly 56 percent in the first quarter of last year. During the same period, Japanese and South Korean brands had a market share of 21 percent and 17 percent respectively, Hsieh said.
But China’s domestic brands began to gain popularity in the fourth quarter of last year, grabbing up to 78 percent of the LCD TV market, whereas their Japanese and South Korean counterparts saw their market share drop, he said.
“This is largely due to Taiwanese panelmakers’ strong support for China’s local brands,” he said.
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