US TV research specialist DisplaySearch reckons that the integrated circuit market which drives flat panel TV displays grew almost 15% in the third quarter with 34,510 units shipping but reckons that the market leaders will now have to hang on to their hats, because the going will get bumpy. Its rationale, apart from the recession, is that developed markets have made their transition to flat panels, and emerging markets are not yet ready to begin theirs.
DisplaySearch lists Taiwan’s Mediatek as the leading supplier of ICs for TVs, but said it lost market share slightly due to Samsung’s taking chip manufacture in-house. Another Taiwanese player, MStar is growing market share rapidly and came up from 9.3% to 13.3% in Q3’08, partly because it services the low end TV sets which Samsung makes (which it has not yet brought in-house) and those made by LG Electronics. MStar is also the market leader in China, especially for domestic LCD TV consumption. Samsung is now estimated to be 3rd in TV ICs, with 9.9% market share based upon the dominance of Samsung TVs. Samsung only sells to its in-house customer. US players Trident and Zoran make up the top five TV chip suppliers, says DisplaySearch.
With the Flat Panel TV market experiencing consolidation, the turmoil will be repeated in the TV semiconductor sector. These chip vendors will also all have to cope with the surge of interest in internet TV links, which is attracting companies like Intel and Broadcom to the TV market (see separate piece today).