AUSTIN, TX – Twenty-three percent of the 20.1 million LCD TV units shipped in the third quarter were made by contractors such as TPV, Jabil, AmTRAN, Quanta, Proview, Vestel and Wistron, says the latest report by research firm DisplaySearch.
 
Many LCD TV OEMs – including Grundig, HP, Polaroid, Vizio, ViewSonic and Westinghouse – outsourced 100% of their manufacturing.
 
Philips outsourced more than 60% of its LCD TVs shipped in the quarter. Some intend to increase their outsourcing share for certain regions and products as the market expands, while other brands intend to bring more volume in-house as they expand into new regions, according to DisplaySearch.
 
More than two million LCD monitor panels shipped in the third quarter were used for LCD TVs, a significant leap from 900,000 in the prior quarter.
 
LCD TVs under 26" will increasingly use LCD monitor panels, says the firm.
 
Some 23.7 million LCD TV modules were shipped from TFT LCD makers, while LCD TV manufacturers shipped 20.1 million units, the report adds. These variances reportedly were a result of supply chain, assembly lead-time, buffer stocks and channel inventory.
 
TPV led the TV set subcontract manufacturing market with a 19.9% share, followed by Proview, Jabil and AmTRAN.
 
The main customer for TPV is Philips, and the main customer for AmTRAN is Vizio; the main customer of Proview is Polaroid, and the main customer of Jabil is Philips, says DisplaySearch.
 
Philips was the top customer of LG.Philips LCD; Samsung LCD TV was the top customer of CMO and CPT. Sony was the top customer of AUO and Samsung (including S-LCD).
 
In addition, each of the top-five suppliers looked to their top-five customers for at least 50% of their volume, with the exception of CMO, concludes the report.