Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- South Korean electronic companies' share topped in the U.S. digital TV market last year, excelling that of Japanese firms, South Korea's Korea Herald reported Tuesday.

    In 2008, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, and LG Electronics were ranked top 5 producers in the U.S. digital TV market, taking up 61.9 percent of market share in terms of sales volume, according to the U.S. market research firm NPD.

    The two South Korean firms, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, had 26.1 percent and 6.6 percent market share, respectively. Samsung Electronics marked the largest market share, while LG was the last among the top 5.

    The market share of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics totaled to 32.7 percent, which topped that of the three Japanese producers by 3.5 percentage points.

    In terms of sales value, the market share of the two Korean firms excelled Japanese firms last year as well.

    The data from NPD also shows that the two Korean electronic firms took up 39.6 percent of the market share in terms of sales value, which is 4.2 percentage points larger than that of the Japanese firms. The combined market share of Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic, in terms of sales value, was recorded at 35.4 percent in 2008.

    In 2007, the Japanese firms marked 37.4 percent of market share by value, beating the Korean firms whose combined market share stood at 29.3 percent.