Samsung has just released their Q2 earnings report and it shows a tiny increase in global TV sales. Samsung still makes money and proclaims that they now have over 60 % market share in the LED TV market.

Samsung’s LED sales continue to rise
Samsung is struggling to make their LCD panel business profitable but when it comes to consumer TV products, Samsung is still one of the few TV makers with a profit-making business.


Samsung sees strong demand for LED models, and in particular their ES8000 model

Samsung Q2 report includes a few interesting details. Samsung says that the overall TV market is virtually flat compared to the same period last year. However, Samsung has managed to increase revenue and TV unit sales. Samsung specifically mentions the ES7000 and ES8000 models as sales drivers.

Another interesting note is that Samsung has increased their share of LED TV sales from over 50 % in Q1 to over 60 % in Q2. In other words, Samsung has left even less room for their competitors. LED models now make up more than 80 % of Samsung’s TV sales. LED TV is a marketing term invented by Samsung to describe a LCD-TV with LED backlighting. LCD-TVs have traditionally used CCFLs (cold-cathode fluorescent lamps).

The numbers have not been confirmed by independent analyst firms yet, but IHS mentions that Samsung had a 19 % share of LCD-TV sales that include both LED LCD TV and CCFL LCD TVs in Q1 2012 – one quarter before Samsung’s earnings report. In Q1 2012, LG had a 15 % share of the LCD-TV market.

Lastly, Samsung mentions a plan to increasingly focus on Smart TVs and closer partnerships with media and content providers. Samsung mentioned very little about OLED but says that they expect OLED panel sales for handheld devices to increase. Samsung is reportedly also shifting TV production to OLED technology.

- Source: Samsung & IHS