Dubai: iSuppli expects the LCRD market to grow 8 per cent annually until 2014.
"This year the market is expected to grow by 7.22 per cent to 8.9 million compared to 8.3 million last year," iSuppli principal analyst Riddhi Patel told Gulf News.
Patel said brands were becoming more aggressive and prices were expected to fall on a regular basis.
When asked about 3D technology, she said 3D TVs would be restricted to niche markets, affluent markets and early technology adaptors.
"Sony expects 3D televisions will make up approximately 5 to10 per cent of the sale of all Sony LCD TV sets during 2010," Sony Gulf FZE managing director Osamu Miura said.
He said we would also see content such as sports, concerts and other live and scripted programming delivered via 3D-enabled broadcast channels being significant drivers.
LG's TV division sales manager to Mansoor Imaduddin said the major change would be the introduction of a new range of full LED series.
Dubai IT was expected to be a bleak year in 2009 for TV shipments in Middle East and Africa. However, shipments far exceeded initial expectations as consumers snapped up discounted products.
TV shipments in MEA grew 7 per cent overall to 8.3 million units in 2009 compared to 7.8 units in 2008, fuelled by strong demand for liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs. Out of the total 8.3 million units sold, 3.9 million were LCD TVs, 3.56 million were cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and 0.747 million were plasma TVs.
"One of the key drivers of growth was the erosion in average selling price and decreasing margins at the brand and retail level," iSuppli principal analyst Riddhi Patel told the Gulf News.
"Last year the average selling price declined by 15 per cent for LCDs and 23 per cent for plasmas."
She said CRTs were still in demand in certain African and Middle Eastern countries where LCDs and plasmas were not that cheap or popular.
"The results clearly demonstrate that consumers still have a strong desire to purchase LCD TVs, but at the same time are willing to shift their buying behavior to match their budget in a recession-plagued year," she said.
Out of 3.9 million LCD TVs sold, 1.9 million units were 32-inch — the most popular screen size, accounting for 49 per cent of LCD sales. Total LED-backlight TVs sold last year stood at 177,000 units.
Patel said LED backlights were not new in LCD TVs, but they had become significantly more affordable and offered lower power consumption, thinner and lighter cabinet designs, and better picture quality. However, the premiums for LED-backlit LCD TVs had been prohibitively high till last year. These were expected to fall in 2010, she said.
Samsung remained the leader last year with a market share of 46 per cent and 1.8 million units sold, followed by LG with 23 per cent market share and 921,000 units sold, and Panasonic with 5 per cent and 200,000 units sold.
All major brands expected sales to pick up further with the introduction of 3D TVs this quarter.
"We are very optimistic about the TV industry for 2010 and with a strong line-up or products we expect to grab 30 per cent market share," said Sony Gulf FZE managing director Osamu Miura.
He said "As per our estimates we expect total shipments in 2010 to rise by approximately 50 per cent."
LG's TV division sales manager Mansoor Imaduddin said he expected LCDs would dominate the market until mid 2010. He expected most consumers would shift to the big LCD TVs in the first half, and LED would take over the major share of the market in the second half.
Riddhi said total revenues earned last year stood at $116.8 billion, an increase of a mere three per cent when compared to $113.3 billion in 2008.
Revenues from LCD TVs rose 14.3 per cent to $94.3 billion compared to $82.5 billion in 2008, while revenues from plasma TVs fell more than 15 per cent to $15 billion last year compared to $17.8 billion in 2008. CRTs had gone from $7.5 billion in 2009 to $13 billion in 2008, a decrease of 42.3 per cent.
"Globally 211 million TVs were sold last year, of which 141 million was LCDs, 15.8 million plasmas and 54.2 million CRTs,"she said.
Internet-enabled TV is a set that has the capability to connect to the Internet either with a wired link or wirelessly, and provides sufficient system resources to support thin-client applications such as Yahoo Connected TV widgets or the Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home. Sales of such models will reach 87.6 million units by 2013.
