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Vizio Tops Q4 North American TV Market Share Reports

NEW YORK –

A consensus of top U.S. TV display analysts
showed that Vizio ranked No. 1 in U.S. LCD TV
unit volume market share for the fourth quarter, while
Samsung ranked tops for dollar volume in LCD TV and
flat-panel TV, both in the U.S. and worldwide.

Studies from IHS iSuppli, DisplaySearch and Quixel
Research all showed Vizio at the top of the heap for
unit volume sales of LCD TVs once Q4 results were
fully tabulated.

According to iSuppli, the brand ranked No. 1 in all flatpanel
unit volume for the quarter and was the No. 1 U.S.
brand of LCD TV for both the quarter for the year 2010.

The brand showed U.S. LCD HDTV shipments for
2010 at more than 21 percent market share, while its
share during the fourth quarter clocked in at 28 percent,
eclipsing second-ranked Samsung. iSuppli said
the Q4 achievement was “the highest share any brand
in the industry has achieved since 2004.”

Tamaryn Pratt, Quixel Research principal, said: “Vizio
was indeed the market share leader in units for Q4 as
they represented 28 percent of the total LCD TV category.
Even more significant, the company’s unit share
grew almost 12 percent from Q4 2009 to Q4 2010.”

Vizio’s year-to-year growth rate reached 55 percent
– also the highest in the industry for the period, and
three of Vizio’s models ranked in the top five Q4 best sellers in the U.S., including a popular big screen 42-
inch model, according to Quixel Research.

Much of the brand’s success came from betterfeatured
step-up models in the XVT series, said Paul
Gagnon, DisplaySearch North American TV display
research director. Even there, the brand continued its
value positioning offering consumers bargain prices for features like LED backlighting and connected IPTV
capability.

The strategy also helped No. 2 Samsung (in U.S.
LCD unit volume) take top position in factory dollar
volume in the fourth quarter in both the U.S. and the
world, Gagnon said.

Gagnon said Vizio was the leading shipper of LED
backlit HDTVs in North America in the fourth quarter.

According to Vizio, shipments of Vizio LED LCD TVs
grew 993 percent year to year, while FullHD 1080p
LCD TV shipments grew 44 percent year to year. In
46-inch and larger screen sizes, Vizio’s sales grew 92
percent year to year, while sales of 120Hz and higher
models grew 119 percent year to year, according to
the supplier.

“Vizio’s growth was impressive in both the large
and small screen sizes, where 42-inch sales were up
180 percent from Q3 ’10 to Q4 ’10, and 32-inch sales
were up 189 percent for the same time period,” said
Quixel’s Pratt.

“Looking at the 40-inch-plus LCD TV market, Vizio
had plenty of competition from top brands as well as
other value brands, and saw flat share results or represented
about 18 percent of the total 40-inch-plus LCD
TV market in both the third and fourth quarter of 2010.”

“Vizio has also become a leader in some key advanced
TV categories, rising to No. 1 in LED LCD
TV unit shipments in North America and was No. 2 in
high-frame-rate LCD and 40-inch-plus screen sizes,”
stated DisplaySearch’s Gagnon.

Meanwhile, iSuppli ranked Vizio the No. 1 brand for
all U.S. flat-panel unit volume in the fourth quarter.

“With its strong business in both plasma and LCD
sets, Samsung historically has led this area. However,
Vizio captured the lead because of aggressive shipments
of feature-rich LCD TVs at attractive pricing
through its distribution network,” IHS iSuppli said in a
statement on its report.

According to iSuppli, Vizio shipped 2.9 million flatpanel
sets in Q4, up 78.9 percent from 1.6 million in
the third quarter and a 55.5 percent increase from 1.8
million in the fourth quarter of 2009. This gave Vizio
a 23.9 percent share of the U.S. flat-panel market in
the fourth quarter, up from 16.6 percent in the third
quarter.

Meanwhile, Samsung’s share rose to 21.5 percent
in the fourth quarter, up from 18.8 percent in the third,
iSuppli said. While its share rose, the increase was not
sufficient to keep it from staying in second place in the
U.S. flat-panel television market.

Samsung shipped 2.6 million flat-panel sets in the
fourth quarter of 2010, up 41.5 percent from 1.8 million
in the third quarter and a 22.8 percent rise from
2.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.

However, because Samsung led Vizio in flat-panel
television shipments during the first three quarters of
2010, it maintained leadership for the year as a whole.
Samsung accounted for 20.1 percent of U.S. flat-panel
shipments in 2010, compared to 18.4 percent for
Vizio, according to IHS iSuppli.

In other categories, Vizio said it also saw significant
growth in soundbars and Blu-ray Disc players last year.

Vizio brand soundbars led the category in Q4, on sales
growth of 200 percent quarter to quarter, while sales of
Blu-ray players grew 163 percent, according to Vizio.

Vizio attributed the success to its wide assortment
of products and capabilities.

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