Figures published by industry monitor DisplaySearch show increased sales of LCD TVs in the last three months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, flying in the face of expectations based on the prevailing financial crisis.

February 23, 2010 — Market research company DisplaySearch has published a round-up of the TV market for the fourth quarter of 2009. The report’s figures show a two-percent year-on-year increase in overall TV sales; the LCD TV sector saw the largest sales growth, notching up an incredible 50-percent year-on-year rise. Plasma TVs saw their sales grow just six percent, while sales of OLED TVs, a fledgling TV technology, fell by a third. These figures show just how strongly LCD is dominating the display market: Sales of LCD TVs grew more than eight times faster than sales of plasmas between 2008 and 2009. OLED TVs fared even worse than plasmas on a year-on-year basis, but saw 193-percent growth between the third and fourth quarters of 2009. Plasma, and especially OLED, will have to work hard to overcome the challenge posed by LCD; Panasonic, for example, is said to be attempting to bolster plasma’s slumping sales by pushing it as the display technology of choice for 3D TVs.