Toshiba says to launch compact DVD player
TOKYO, Sept 29 (Reuter) - Japanese electronics company
Toshiba Corp said on Monday it would launch what it
called the world's first compact personal digital video disc
(DVD) player in Japan on November 16.
The new DVD player, priced at 75,000 yen, is as small as a
sub-notebook personal computer and weighs only 1.2 kg, Toshiba
said in a statement.
Toshiba also said it would launch a slightly larger compact
DVD player at the same time weighing 3.2 kg for the same price.
A Toshiba spokesman said the company had set sales targets
of 10,000 units a month for the smaller compact DVD player and
3,000 units a month and for the larger one.
"The growing availability of DVD software titles, recently
passing the 250 mark in Japan and nearing 500 in the United
States, is expected to accelerate market growth," the Toshiba
statement said.
Japanese electronics makers such as Toshiba and Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co started selling DVD players in
Japan in November last year, but a lack of attractive software
titles has held back sales.
More DVD software titles are now becoming available,
however, and a Japanese electronics industry group recently
predicted that the global market for DVD players would jump to
2.8 million units in 1998 and 5.4 million in 1999 from an
estimated 1.2 million in 1997.
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