Flat panel television market shows first ever decline

Echoing iSuppli's research data published last month, NPD market analysis subdivison DisplaySearch released its quarterly report on the flat panel television market, showing its first ever decline in revenue.

With discretionary spending seriously stilted, an overall drop in retail price of TVs did not have quite a stimulative effect, and revenue for the entire TV market dropped by 3%.

However, it appears that even though fewer consumers were buying new flat screen TVs, those who did went for bigger and better. Demand for screen sizes over 40 inches actually hit an all-time high with 23% growth, and LCD TVs with refresh rates of 120 Hz and up hit a 10% market share.

This growth can be traced back to a single manufacturer, who by no coincidence is also the number one TV brand in terms of sales: Samsung. In North America, the world's largest TV market in terms of revenue, Samsung's products in the over 40-inch and 100/120Hz category are some of the most competitively priced. This also happens to be the profile of the most commonly sold TV in 2008.

According to DisplaySearch, the worldwide TV market is led by Samsung, then Sony, LG, Panasonic, and Sharp. LCD screens lead the market with a 58% share, followed by CRT which snagged 34% (but dropped 30% year over year), and then plasma (PDP) with 7.7%.

OLED, being the newest and still most expensive TV technology, did not secure a tangible share of the market, and actually suffered a 58% drop in growth year over year.