LG.Philips Takes the Lead in the Large-Sized LCD Panel Market

LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. in the first quarter managed to stave off the worst effects of the seasonal sales slowdown, allowing it to surpass AU Optronics Corp. to become the world’s leading supplier of large-sized LCD panels in terms of unit shipments, according to a preliminary estimate from iSuppli Corp. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. still led the market in terms of revenue in the first quarter.

In the first quarter, South Korea-based LG.Philips shipped 16.6 million large-sized LCD panels, up 1 percent from 16.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. LG.Philips outperformed the overall large-sized LCD panel market, which contracted by 4.5 percent to 77.5 million units, down from 81.2 million units in the fourth quarter. This caused LG.Philips’ share of global shipments to rise to 21.4 percent in the first quarter, up from 20.2 percent in the fourth quarter.