Last week’s report by iSuppli wasn’t an anomaly. Irvine’s Vizio Inc.  has now been named the nation’s top seller of LCD TVs by a second market research firm.

DisplaySearch, based in Austin, Tex., said Vizio shipped 18.9 percent of the LCD TVs during the first quarter of 2009, bypassing Samsung’s 17.4 percent. The report also offers more details about the industry.

The kicker was that Vizio is the only brand of the top five LCD TV makers to grow from the weak fourth quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009. Vizio grew 21 percent, while LCD TV shipments for the industry fell 18 percent during the period. 

Vizio also had the strongest year-over-year growth, up 79 percent in the first quarter compared to the year-ago quarter. The industry grew 20 percent in the same period. See DisplaySearch’s chart below:

U.S. LCD TV sales, 1st Q 2009, DisplaySearch

DisplaySearch said a weak holiday quarter was partly due to consumer exuberance for flat TVs. Stores ran out of stock as they cut prices for the holiday season, while others like Circuit City offered closeout pricing as it prepared to shut down.

DisplaySearch also notes that this isn’t the first time Vizio has been at number one. It last took the lead in the second quarter of 2007. 

“Vizio is a relatively young TV brand in the US marketplace, but their strong alignment with mass merchant and warehouse club retailers seemed to put them in the right place at the right time with growing channels,” said Paul Gagnon, DisplaySearch Director of North America TV Research.

Vizio, which pulled out of the plasma TV business earlier this year, is still second behind Samsung in overall TV sales. However, Vizio grew 13 percent from the fourth quarter to first quarter, whereas Samsung sank 30 percent in the same period.  

Read more about the DisplaySearch report HERE.

Interestingly, the report also notes that Funai, another TV maker that sells the Sylvania and Emerson brands, also rose in the ranks, rising to 8.5 percent market share in the first quarter, from 7 percent in the fourth quarter. Funai has had mixed results fighting with Vizio for royalty fees on the digital-tuner patents Funai says it owns. The two have been in and out of court on the issue.

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