Sell-Through Figures Encouraging for DVD; Computer Retail Week
Friday, December 05, 1997 at 22:46
(Published on Monday, December 08, 1997 at 00:00)
by Roger C. Lanctot
New York-The latest DVD sales reports paint a bright picture this
holiday season for the laggard technology.
Research company PC Data, Reston, Va., reported last week that PCs
with DVD-ROM drives captured 6 percent of retail system revenues in
October.
At the same time, Creative Labs' DVD Encore DX2 upgrade kits sold more
in the month of October than all of Creative's total DVD-ROM upgrade
kit sales for the seven preceding months combined, according to PC
Data.
Shipments of DVD players have been averaging more than 20,000 units
per month, according to data supplied by the Consumer Electronics
Manufacturers Association. And movie sales are climbing at an
impressive clip, with 69,000 units sold in the week ended Nov. 23. That
moved the total sales figure to nearly 1 million units since March,
according to retail point-of-sale data from Westlake Village,
Calif.-based VideoScan, representing 14,000 retail locations.
And, in a boost to the software side, DVD movies were introduced at
Computer City SuperCenters last month in a display marketed by DVD-ROM
drive maker Hi-Val. CompUSA is expected to sign on to the program
before year-end, sources said. CompUSA recently advertised a DVD player
for the first time in its bi-weekly circular.
The growing interest comes despite a dearth of DVD-ROM software. As of
last week, only two DVD-ROM titles were available for retail
distribution: DeLorme's AAA Map 'n' Go and Multicom's Warren Miller Ski
World. But the dam appears ready to burst.
Microsoft announced the availability of Encarta on DVD-ROM late last
week and The Learning Company began shipping three titles: Genius at
Edison, Connections and Battles of the World. And Xiphias has begun
shipping Encyclopedia Electronica.
"There's a lot of product hitting the market right after Christmas,"
said John Viscott of DVDExpress, an Internet-based reseller of DVD
movies and software. "It's only a matter of time now."
On the hardware side, PCs with integrated DVD-ROM drives accounted for
2.8 percent of retail unit PC sales in October, but 5.8 percent of
revenue, according to PC Data. Data from La Jolla, Calif.-based
Computer Intelligence's StoreBoard sales survey show Compaq and
Hewlett-Packard dominate the market with more than 40 percent of unit
sales share apiece.
"People buying PCs with DVD drives are buying insurance," said Chuck
Cebuhar, divisional vice president and general manager for Sears'
consumer electronics department.
Still, DVD misfires abound. CompUSA advertised Access Software's first
DVD title, Tex Murphy: Overseer, last week even though the product is
not expected to ship until January.
The Hi-Val software rack appeared at Computer City with a note of
disappointment: A visit to a New York-area Computer City store last
week found the Hi-Val display in place with the 24 movies in stock, but
there were no DVD-ROM software titles and no signs explaining the
display.
And, while the presence of the display suggests that Computer City
expects to sell DVD players, the company declined to comment on any
such plans.
CompUSA is expected to bring the Hi-Val display in before Christmas,
although the company declined to comment on its plans to sell movies. |
