Irvine’s Vizio Inc., which designs and markets flat TVs here, said Thursday it grew its market share last year and stayed on top as the biggest seller of liquid-crystal display sets.
The company sold 6.9 million TVs in 2010 for a total North America market share of 18%, according to data released this month from DisplaySearch, a unit of Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group Inc.
That’s up from 2009, when the company sold nearly 6 million sets and had 17% market share.
It took share from big-name competitors, including Samsung Group, Sony Corp. and Funai Electric Corp., which sells sets under the Philips brand in the U.S.
No. 2 Samsung sold 6.7 million sets and had 17.5% share. No. 3 Funai sold 4.6 million and had 12% share. No. 4 Sony sold 3.9 million TVs for 10.4% share.
Rounding out the list were No. 5 Toshiba Corp., No. 6 Sanyo Corp., No. 7 Sharp Electronics Corp. and No. 8 Panasonic Corp.
In the past few years, Vizio has expanded its product line up into what’s called “peripherals,” or accessories and other electronics for home entertainment.
Vizio’s “beyond TV” category includes soundbar speakers, Blu-ray players, headphones, wall mounts, cables, wireless routers and other accessories.
The group “saw tremendous increases” in the fourth quarter, the company said.
Vizio didn’t release year-end sales figures. In 2009, the most recent data available, Vizio reported sales of $2.5 billion.
The company runs lean.
It does all the product design, engineering, marketing and customer service locally. Most everything else is done in Asia.
Vizio sells its TVs at Costco, Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and other big box retailers.
