Samsung maintains its grip on European TV market

Samsung is proving just as strong a force in the European TV market as it is in the USA. The latest figures from market research company GfK show it held 30.8% of the LCD TV market in the period from January to May, and in May itself that figure was 31.9%.

Its Korean rival LG took 15.9% of LCD sales in May.

In the premium TV sectors Samsung put up an even stronger showing: it took 39.4% of the 40in+ LCD market, and 39.5% of the full-HD LCD sector.

And when it comes to 3D TVs, Samsung had just over half of the total market in May, and 45.4% of the total in the first five months of the year.

That's not quite as dramatic as its position in the USA, where Samsung had a 58.4% 3D TV market share in May: in Europe the figure was 50.5% for the same month.

However, the 45.4% accumulated share it achieved in Europe from January to May still puts it way ahead of the rivals: in the same period, Sony had a 23.8% market share in 3D TVs, Panasonic 10.3% and LG 8.1%.

And with a nod to the ongoing 3D format war with LG, it seems Samsung can't resist pointing out that means active shutter 3D TVs have an 81.5% market share lead over passive film-patterned retarder models.

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Andrew has written about audio and video products for the past 20+ years, and been a consumer journalist for more than 30 years, starting his career on camera magazines. Andrew has contributed to titles including What Hi-Fi?, GramophoneJazzwise and Hi-Fi CriticHi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi Choice. I’ve also written for a number of non-specialist and overseas magazines.