"The current turmoil is impacting the spending in LCD and plasma TV market. The rising inflation in many markets and continued impact of the recession and credit turmoil in the US and Europe and will slow down sales growth for TVs in 2009 as well," Riddhi Patel, principal analyst, television systems for iSuppli, said.

iSuppli anticipates the fourth quarter of 2008 to be weak compared to previous expectations. In the fourth quarter, 10.21 million units are expected to be shipped into the region, an increase of 2.71 per cent compared to 9.94 million units in third quarter.

"Before the recession hit, 2009 was expected to be a year when the TV market would grow substantially because of the large number of replacement purchases in the mature regions as well as in economically emerging nations," Patel said.

"Moreover, the downturn had been expected to last only a few quarters, and was not believed to be as severe as it now appears," Patel said.

Total LCD and plasma TV shipments into Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in third quarter stood at 9.94 million units, an increase of 5.07 per cent compared to 9.46 million in the second quarter of this year, according to the research firm iSuppli Corp.

LCD TV shipments into the region during the third quarter stood at 8.24 million units while plasma TVs stood at 1.70 million units.

In LCD TV segment, Samsung remained the top vendor in the third quarter with 2.65 million units and with a market share of 32.19 per cent followed by Philips with 1.26 million units and 15.31 per cent market share, Sony with 1.1 million units and 13.69 per cent market share.

In plasma TV segment, Panasonic took the top spot with 392,000 units and occupying 23.01 per cent market share in third quarter followed by Samsung with 391,000 units and 22.94 per cent market share and LG Electronics with 230,000 units and 13.50 per cent market share. All the major vendors' market share fell in the third quarter compared to second quarter.

The value of the TV market in the third quarter stood at $7.76 billion, a decrease of 1.65 per cent when compared to $7.89 billion in second quarter of this year. The value of the TV market in MEA will stand at $648 million in fourth quarter compared to $617 million in the third quarter.

iSuppli now forecasts regional LCD TV shipments will stand at 32.56 million units in 2008, an increase of 8.15 per cent from 30.10 million units in 2007 while plasma TVs will stand at 5.82 million units, an increase of 47 per cent compared to 3.96 million units in 2007.

The market is expected to bounce back in 2010 and the demand for LCD TVs will pick up.

By Scott Shuey

© Gulf News 2009

 

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