ESS Reports Record DVD Chip Shipments in April
Online staff -- Electronic News, 5/13/2002
ESS Technology Inc. today said it shipped more than 2 million units of its DVD decoder chips in April, a new record for the Fremont, Calif., company.
Although the second quarter is usually a seasonally weak period for the company, shipments were higher that expected and topped the record reached in March. ESS said it believes it will beat its previous forecast of 10 percent to 20 percent DVD growth for this quarter.
A recent report from Nikkei Market Access estimated about 53 million DVD players will be sold in 2002, ESS said, because of lower prices and greater demand. Previous industry surveys estimated demand to be in the range of 40 million to 42 million units sold in 2002, the company said.
"During April, our customers reported strong demand from retailers worldwide, with China domestic consumption showing the highest percentage growth," said Patrick Ang, ESS’s COO, in a statement, "We now believe the China domestic market will grow from 3.5 million units in 2001 to approximately 8 million units in 2002."
The company said it has also shipped record numbers of its progressive scan DVD products, which are projected to grow from 50,000 units shipped in March to more than 1 million shipped for the current quarter. ESS also said it believes that it now holds more than 40 percent of the worldwide DVD market.
"We think the progressive scan feature with its higher video quality is going to be the hot item this holiday season, and we are forecasting progressive scan products to grow to over 30 percent of our DVD units during the coming third quarter," Ang said.
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