Everyone - I called James Harper @ Thompson and asked him. His number is on the bottom of the press release :) He said the 2M number is the total sold with TVs over the past 18 months. That's about 111K per month.
Curious about a possible tornado, I did a little digging into Thompson's past numbers. From a press release on Dec 1, 1999, Thompson said they had delivered 1M TVs with EPGs. They also said EPGs will be in all RCA and Proscan TVs for Y2K.
prnewswire.com
"In fact, virtually all RCA and PROSCAN television products will include an electronic program guide in the year 2000, with televisions as small as 19-inches scheduled to have the 'no-fee' guide. By the conclusion of the International Consumer Electronics Show in January 2000, Thomson will have shipped 1.5 million RCA and PROSCAN television sets with the GUIDE Plus+ electronic program guide", said Meyer.
On Jan 6, 2000, they said they had sold 1.5M TVs with EPGs. That's almost 500K in a month!!! It must have been one doozy of a christmas season for them.
prnewswire.com
That brings us to April 11, 2000. They said they delivered 2M in the last 18 months. 500K in Jan-March or 166K per month. The rate has increased by 66% and doesn't include a whopper xmas season. That's not bad. Keep in mind it is only for RCA and Proscan TVs. They also said they had delivered 1.5M set top boxes, many of which are for DirectTV.
We really need to get the numbers from the horse's mount, GMST. Anyone care to call Gemstar and get their story?
Regards,
- Alan |
