DisplaySearch noted that shipments of plasma TVs overtook rear projection TVs worldwide with a 2.9 percent share of the TV market, up from 2.0 percent the first quarter. Rear projection TVs saw their TV market share decline from 2.9 to 2.5 percent. Plasma TVs now outsell RPTVs in all regions except North America, where the percentage of 50-inch and larger TVs remains higher than the rest of the world favoring lower-priced RPTVs, said DisplaySearch.

“The plasma TV market is benefiting from increasingly attractive prices and the rapid decline of the CRT RPTV market which fell 37 percent quarter-to-quarter and 39 percent year-to-year,” said DisplaySearch analyst Ross Young. “Supporting this growth was a 28 percent decline in blended plasma TV prices over the past year.”

Panasonic remained the leading plasma TV supplier the second quarter, seeing its shipments rise sequentially 90 percent to increase the company’s global market share from 17 to 27 percent. LGE, Samsung, Philips, and Hitachi rounded out the top five plasma TV suppliers, according to DisplaySearch.