Vizio Impacting US Connected TV Market

written by: Richard Kastelein

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Published on Tuesday, 23 November 2010 13:37

VIZIO, America's #1 LCD HDTV Company, announced today that it outperformed the industry as the number one shipper of LCD HDTVs in Q3 2010 for both North America and the U.S.  VIZIO also took top honors as the leading shipper of LED backlit HDTVs in North America in Q3 behind the strength of its TruLED™ and Razor LED™ products. VIZIO HDTV sales increased 15% over last quarter while their leading competitor saw shipments fall 2%. VIZIO saw significant sales increases with its 6-time award winning XVT lineup with VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA), as well as in the Beyond TV category, headlined by the nation's bestselling SoundBar and Blu-ray players with wireless Internet apps.

This means a very interesting channel for TV app developers and startups in the Connected TV space as VIZIO uses the Yahoo Connected TV Widget platform but... in order to appeal to more developers it has also integrated Adobe Flash directly into its Via HDTV. That way, developers like Netflix, for instance, can decide if they want to make a Flash-based app or a Yahoo widget to deliver its streaming video service to a TV, according to Matt McRae, Vizio's vice president of advanced platforms in Cnet. So far, Netflix and Rhapsody have created Flash-based versions of their services for Vizio. Rhapsody's app is exclusive to the Via HDTV. McRae said allowing Flash-based apps on its TV would allow for better animation or anything with vector-based graphics.

VIZIO, America's #1 LCD HDTV Company, announced today that it outperformed the industry as the number one shipper of LCD HDTVs in Q3 2010 for both North America and the U.S.  VIZIO also took top honors as the leading shipper of LED backlit HDTVs in North America in Q3 behind the strength of its TruLED™ and Razor LED™ products. VIZIO HDTV sales increased 15% over last quarter while their leading competitor saw shipments fall 2%. VIZIO saw significant sales increases with its 6-time award winning XVT lineup with VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA), as well as in the Beyond TV category, headlined by the nation's bestselling SoundBar and Blu-ray players with wireless Internet apps.

"Third quarter has been a groundbreaking time for VIZIO and an excellent demonstration of our commitment to creating innovative technologies," stated Randy Waynick, Chief Sales Officer, VIZIO.  "Customers have embraced our higher performance product lineup and carried over their brand loyalty to our Beyond TV products, making VIZIO products like SoundBars and Blu-ray players best sellers as well."

Adding to the meteoric growth of the brand, VIZIO's Beyond TV Category, which includes SoundBars, Blu-ray players, Headphones, Wall mounts, Wireless Routers, and other accessories, saw tremendous increases in Q3. Market-leading SoundBars saw sales growth of 78% while sales of VIZIO's popular Blu-ray players grew 746%. Offering a wide range of SoundBar solutions with innovative wireless subwoofers in 5.1 and 2.1 channel configurations and sizes for small to large size televisions has allowed VIZIO to dominate this market -- capturing over 50% of the growing SoundBar market in Q3 based on the CEA's MarketMetrics data.

VIZIO's innovative products and technologies have propelled the company to the top, driving the XVT Series to win six industry awards for best picture quality and VIA connected TV platform.  The popularity and high regard for VIZIO products is evident in the 1.602 million TVs shipped in Q3 2010, a 15% sales increase from the 1.394 million TVs VIZIO shipped in Q2 2010.

"VIZIO rose to #1 in total LCD TV shipments in North America during Q3 2010 with a 16.8% market share.  VIZIO accomplished this by posting a 30% year-over-year increase in shipments, outpacing an industry that was flat in Q3. In addition, VIZIO became the #1 brand on a shipment basis for LED backlit LCD TVs, a rapidly growing premium segment of the TV market, with almost 30% of the market," stated Paul Gagnon, Director of North American TV Research at DisplaySearch.

The third quarter's results showed that consumers are looking for innovation as well as value for their HDTV purchases. VIZIO Full HD LCD TVs grew 41% YoY, 42" and above TVs grew 95% YoY and VIZIO Internet Apps TVs grew 113% QoQ.

"VIZIO ranked #1 in the US LCD TV market in Q310 because of increased consumer acceptance of the brand, aggressive pricing and support for newer features such as LED backlighting and Internet connectivity," said Riddhi Patel, Principal Analyst, Television Systems, for the market research firm, iSuppli Corp., El Segundo, Calif.

Further displaying VIZIO's growing popularity for the family's main living room TV is Quixel Research's Q3 list of the Top 5 Best Selling models in the US LCD TV market.  A total of three VIZIO 40"+ LCD TV models ranked among the top five best sellers.

"Consumers are looking to the VIZIO brand to purchase their larger main living room TVs where they get the latest features at prices that allow them to step up to the next generation of entertainment," stated Tamaryn Pratt, Analyst at Quixel Research.  "This is evidenced by Quixel's Top Selling 40"+ SKUs in the third quarter, where three VIZIO models make the top 5 list."