It didn’t seem that long ago that Sony was in a desperate catch-up game for a piece of the flat-screen market, having made some unfortunate decisions on what types of HD products consumers would prefer and how quickly they would prefer them. Now new stats indicate that for the first time Sony has jumped four spots (in the final quarter of 2007) to reach the top slot in LCD shipments.
Sony’s market share in LCD climbed from under 10 percent to nearly 12.8 percent on quarter-to-quarter sequential growth of 83 percent, which also was the best showing of the major brands, according to quarterly numbers from DisplaySearch.
For the final quarter, which included the important holiday season, Sony was the leading brand for shipments in the United States and Canada for nearly all screen sizes 40 inches and larger.
A big part of Sony’s surging growth was attributed to “strategic alignment with national big box retailers” (such as Best buy and Costco), according to DisplaySearch—major retailers that focused on screens 40 inches and larger, and 1080p, during the holiday selling season.
North America now accounts for about 30 percent of Sony global LCD shipments, a jump over previous years. That too helped, said the media analyst.
