Vizio LCD TVs Take No 1 Spot in LCD TV Market

Total LCD TV shipments were 6.3 million in North America during the first quarter of 2009. This figure represents an increase of 10.5% for the same period in 2008 year.

The growth is welcome, if a little surprising given that the weak economy has caused sales of other consumer electronics to tale a tumble so far in 2009.

The most surprising aspect of the sales figures is that Vizio sold 21.6 percent of total LCD TVs shipped in the first quarter of 2009. This is a big leap in their market share, as it’s about 50% up from the 13.8 percent Vizio achieved in the fourth quarter of 2008.

As such Vizio LCD TV has now become the top-selling LCD TV brand in the U.S and in becoming the top brand, Vizio has overtaken Samsung, Sony, LG Electronics and Sharp along the way.

Seeing how Vizio only started business in 2002, you have to say it has come a long way very fast.

US-LCDTV-marketshares-Q1-2009

Question: So why is Vizio now the number one LCD TV brand? Most likely it’s because consumers are looking for cheaper TVs. Certainly, since the onset of the economic downturn, Vizio’s share has risen dramatically.

Vizio has kept its market share rising by:

keeping its prices low, despite competition from other “no-name” brands and the big brandnames

and

getting into stores like Costco and Wal-Mart, so its products are available in places where people are buying.

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One of Vizio’s best selling LCD TVs in Q1 2009 was a 42-inch HDTV for an average price of $850 (the VW42LF - 42″ Class LCD FHDTV is currently listed at $829.99 on the Vizio website).

In comparison, a similar TV from Samsung was around $1,000, while Sony’s was a little more at $1,090.

On the other hand, you can read this LCD TV review where the conclusion was “although the Vizio looked good by itself, when compared side by side with the Samsung the (large) difference in price was justified.”

For me, if a Samsung LCD TV was $1000 vs a similar Vizio LCD TV at $850, I’d want to take a close look at the 2 TVs, preferably side by side before buying.

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