Philips gets whacked in LCD TV sales

As expected, sales of liquid crystal display TVs declined from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2007. The surprise was how much Royal Philips Electronics' sales of the flat-screen televisions slid.

The Dutch electronics giant posted the worst performance among the top five brands worldwide, according to a report from research firm iSuppli. Philips' shipments declined 26 percent. Overall, the market declined 8 percent, with shipments globally dropping from 15.2 million in the last three months of 2006 to 14 million in the first three months of this year. (If you ever wanted evidence of the holiday bump in sales, there it is.)

As a result, Philips fell from No. 2, with 15.1 percent market share worldwide, to No. 3, with 12.2 percent.

Sony moved up from No. 3 to the second spot in LCD TVs, but it, too, did worse than the market. Sony saw shipments decline by 13.7 percent over the three-month period.

Samsung, No. 1, gained a little bit, while Sharp and LG Electronics, Nos. 4 and 5, did a smidgen worse than the market.