Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. led the world’s flat-screen TV market last year, but they lagged behind Japanese companies in emerging 3-D TV markets, an industry report showed Monday.

According to market researcher DisplaySearch, Samsung Electronics clinched 18.7 percent of the flat-screen TVs sold in the global market in 2010, followed by LG’s 13.1 percent and Sony Corp.’s 10.3 percent.

Samsung was also the world’s top TV maker by revenue, accounting for 22.3 percent of global sales of flat-screen TVs, according to the report.

LG became the second-largest global TV supplier in terms of revenue, garnering 13.5 percent of the global TV revenue and edging past Sony for the first time. Sony claimed 12.4 percent of the world’s TV revenues last year, coming in as the third-largest TV maker.

The global flat-screen TV market, which includes liquid-crystal display (LCD) TVs and plasma display panel (PDP) TVs, expanded more than 30 percent from one year earlier to 210 million units in 2010, according to DisplaySearch.
The global market for 3-D TVs, meanwhile, remained at a fledgling stage with 2.33 million 3-D TV units shipped in the fourth quarter.

Though Korean TV makers retained their lead in the overall TV markets, their Japanese counterparts excelled in the 3-D niche market, toppling Korean companies in 3-D LCD TVs and 3-D PDP TVs, the report showed.

Sony claimed 43.3 percent of the world’s 3-D LCD TV market, compared with Samsung’s 36.1 percent. Panasonic Corp. won 50.5 percent of the global 3-D PDP TV market, while Samsung accounted for 41.7 percent of the same market, the report said. 

(Yonhap News)