Vizio takes Q2 TV market  share lead

Vizio ascended to the top of the flat-panel market share ranks in the second quarter of 2007, according to two separate TV market research bulletins released Monday and reported by TWICE Magazine..

Both Austin, Texas-based DisplaySearch and El Segundo, Calif.-based iSuppli said the young flat-panel brand with predominately U.S. financial backing used its unusually focused retail distribution strategy and aggressive pricing to out sell all other brands in combined LCD TV and plasma sales during the period.

According to The NPD Group company DisplaySearch’s “Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report,” “one of the biggest surprises” in the second quarter was Vizio’s shakeup of the flat-panel TV rankings.

The brand, which has only been in the TV market since mid-2003, became the No. 1 LCD TV brand for the first time, rising from No. 4 in Q1 2007 to No. 1 in Q2 2007 on more than 70 percent quarter-to-quarter and 400 percent year-to-year unit growth, overtaking Samsung.

Combined with its plasma performance — DisplaySearch had Vizio pegged at No. 4 in plasma in the quarter — Vizio led all brands in overall flat-panel sales with 11.9 percent share, up its 8.8 percent position in the previous quarter, DisplaySearch said. Growth for the year-to-year period was said to 340 percent.

Similarly, iSuppli said Vizio became the leading LCD TV brand in North America in the second quarter of 2007, shipping 606,402 LCD TVs, up 76.4 percent from 343,704 in the first quarter.

“This caused Vizio's North American unit market share to rise to 14.5 percent, up from 9.4 percent in the first quarter,” iSuppli said.

The sales surge also caused Vizio to rise four positions in the North American rankings, going from the fifth spot in the first quarter to No. 1 in the second quarter — passing Samsung, Philips, Sharp and Sony on the way.