40-inch liquid crystal display televisions took the leading role in expanding the local market this year.

According to industry sources yesterday, sales of 40-inch or larger LCDs recorded explosive growth this year, thanks to the local LCD manufacturers` drastic price cut this month.

The trend favoring big-sized LCDs became prominent as LCD producers, including Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Co., cut prices by 12-20 percent this month.

Sales of Samsung`s LCD TVs rose by 417.8 percent compared to a year ago. Among them, sales of 42-inch LCD TVs soared by a whopping 1,188 percent.

Sales of 32-inch and smaller-than-32-inch LCD products increased by 472.1 percent and 232.0 percent, respectively. But those numbers are far below the growth rate of 40-inch or larger LCDs.

The portion of big-sized displays among the total display sales volume also jumped. Share of 40-inch or larger LCDs` sales was 23.9 percent, an almost three-fold increase from last year`s 8.4 percent.

However, the portion of 32-inch LCDs of total sales volume was 49.5 percent, a minor increase compared to last year`s 43.9 percent.

LCD TVs` share jumped to 16.3 percent from last year`s 8.4 percent in the local 40-inch flat display TV market.

"Still 32-inch LCDs are our flagship products. But sales of 40-inch or larger LCD TVs are rapidly growing, taking up ever-larger portions in our LCD portfolio," said a Samsung Electronics official.

"Here we see a definite trend favoring big-sized LCDs since smaller-than-32-inch LCD products record negative growth rates."

(siyoungh@heraldm.com)



By Hwang Si-young