Over 53.5 million television sets were sold around the world in the third quarter of 2008, up 6% from the same time period in 2007, according to recent research by DisplaySearch. LCD set accounted for 50% of all units sold in the July-to-September time frame with sales of 26.8 million sets, up 32% from the same quarter a year earlier.

In North America, Western Europe and Japan, LCD lead was even greater. Fully 80% of televisions sold in North America and 87% in Western Europe and Japan were of the LCD variety.

Despite the virtual disappearance of cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions in the most developed markets, CRT TVs continue to be the most popular technology in the emerging markets of China, Latin America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa where unit share for CRT TVs was at least 60%.

Thanks to strong sales in those markets, CRT accounted for 42.7% of all sales (22.9 million units) in the third quarter. Plasma sales were up 37% when compared to the same quarter in 2007 for a total of 3.8 million units or 7.1% of overall tv sales. Rear Projection TV sales plummeted 76% to just 90,000 units worldwide, a scant 0.2% of all sales.

Samsung was the global leader in television revenues for the 11th straight quarter with a 22.5% share, followed by Sony (13.3%), LG (10.9%), Panasonic (8.6%) and Sharp (8.0%).

Story filed 02.12.08