KUALA LUMPUR: Panasonic Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd aims to strengthen its share of the large-screen TV market in the region to 27% this year, up from 25% last year, said a company official.

Panasonic Asia Pacific general manager Motoki Nakahara said a quarter of all large-screen TV sets sold in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and Vietnam last year bore the Panasonic brand.

Panasonic was the top brand for flat screen TVs of 37-inch and above in all of the five main regional markets except for Vietnam, he said at the launch of Panasonic Malaysia's Viera series of plasma, LCD and LED LCD TVs for 2010 on Thursday, March 25.

"We intend to capture more market share with the expanding demand for the flat TV," said Nakahara, adding demand for the flat TV increased by about 50% from two years ago.

The gain was at the expense of the cathode ray tube (CRT) TV market.

Nakahara said Panasonic Malaysia was taking up the leadership role in the brand's market positioning in the Asia-Pacific region.

"We would strive to improve our products and marketing activities in Malaysia to achieve our target of 27% market share by 2010 as it (market share) shows how much support our products have received from consumers," he said.

Meanwhile, Panasonic Corporation Japan's Yoshihiro Kanamaru said Panasonic was eyeing the top rung of the world's flat TV brand ladder. He said the goal would be achieved through three main concepts that Panasonic held — environmentally friendly, picture quality and high reality, and easy networking.