James Delahunty
8 Dec 2011 7:38
Samsung breaks record for TV sales in November.
The South Korean consumer electronics firm said that sales of its televisions reached 5.7 million units during the month of November. It praised the long thanksgiving weekend in the United States for a large part of the record total.
On Black Friday, Samsung got its share of the additional $7.4 billion Americans spent compared to the 2010 total. The company sold 700,000 more units than in the month of October, or about 14 percent more. Samsung now feels that it is on track for its sales target of 45 million flat-screen TV units for the 2011.
Samsung's success comes as others in the TV business are struggling. Sony Corp warned last month of a fourth straight year of losses, with its TV unit responsible for losing $2.2 billion. Phillips Electronics has had to transfer its TV business to a joint venture setup with TPV Tecnology Ltd., based in Hong Kong.
Samsung's TV division reported a 240 billion won ($213 million) operating profit for the third quarter of this year.