LCD TV sales increased their share to 90% in the EMEA region for the first time in Q4 of 2011, according to the latest TV market research from Meko. Year end figures from the European display analysts show that LCD TVs have finally squeezed PDP and CRT sales into the remaining 10%.
However, the European TV market overall was down 6.2% by volume to 71.6 million sets in 2011 . The sales in Q4 were down 4.9% on the last quarter of 2010 at 22.9 million units, although up on Q3, following the seasonal pattern in the TV market.
“Even the Middle East and Africa region struggled this time, as a result of the problems in North Africa”, said Meko’s principal, Bob Raikes. “That region had been doing well, but growth slowed towards the end of the year. In some years, consumers have ‘rewarded themselves’ for not spending money in the second half of the year by buying themselves something nice at Christmas, but this year, they just continued to be cautious. Consumers in Germany, who don’t have to rebalance their debt in the way that consumers in credit-driven countries such as the UK have had to do, turned out to be the stars of the region”.
Germany was the largest market for TV over the year as the UK market dropped back so strongly. Germany, UK and France were close in size over the year.
Samsung took 34% of the market with LG dropping to 19%, but leaving the two Korean brands with 53% of the market between them in volume terms. Japanese makers all slipped back in market share with Sony still in third for the year, but only just ahead of Philips.
LCD sets of 42″ and 46″ saw the best growth and 42″ FullHD sets are now nearly a third of the market by value. By value, LED-backlit sets went past 60% for the first time.
