Despite the global economic slowdown, Samsung has increased its lead over its rivals. Its LCD monitors now account for about 95 per cent of the world’s monitor market.

According to market research institute IDC, Samsung achieved a share of 16 per cent in unit sales in the world’s LCD monitor market in the third quarter of this year, keeping the top spot for five straight quarters starting from the third quarter of 2007, said a company statement.

Samsung sold 6.298 million LCD monitors in the third quarter, setting a new quarterly sales record. The previous record was set in the third quarter of 2007 when Samsung sold 6.283 million units.

Samsung widened its lead over the No. 2 player by 2 percentage points from 0.3 percentage points due to the rising popularity of the T Series along with aggressive marketing activities to promote the sales of a series of brand-new models, including the dual webcam monitor.

For the third quarter of this year, Samsung commanded a share of 16 per cent in sales volume terms, with its competitors maintaining shares of 14 per cent,  11.9 per cent, 10.2 per cent and 8.9 per cent.

In unit sales, Samsung maintained the top spot with a share of 17.2 per cent, with its competitors maintaining shares of 14 per cent, 12.9 per cent, 10 per cent and 7.5 per cent.

Backed by strong growth in the LCD monitor business, Samsung has maintained the top spot in the world’s monitor market for nine straight quarters starting from the third quarter of 2006 in unit sales and seven straight quarters from the first quarter of 2007 in revenue terms, said the statement.

Samsung achieved a share of 16.1 per cent in unit sales in the world’s monitor market in the third quarter of 2008, with competitors at 13.5 per cent, 11.6 per cent, 10.8 per cent and 8.7 per cent. In revenue, Samsung gained a share of 17.2 per cent, with competitors at 13.7 per cent, 12.8 per cent, 10.4 per cent and 7.4 per cent.-TradeArabia News Service