DVD player sales double in Japan.............................
nni.nikkei.co.jp
Tuesday, December 29, 1998
Digital Audiovisual Equipment Shows Large Growth In '98
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Shipments of digital audiovisual equipment showed sharp growth in 1998, providing a small dose of end-of-year cheer for consumer electronics firms amid the recession.
Domestic shipment projections for 1998 by Sony Corp. (6758), Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (6752), Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. (JVC) (6782) and other major consumer electronics makers highlighted the MiniDisc and digital video disc markets as showing some of the biggest gains.
Domestic shipments of MD players for 1998 are expected to increase 45% to 2.7 million units, with shipments of portable MD players likely up 50% to 2.2-2.3 million units.
Although total domestic shipments of video cameras are expected to remain flat at about 1.4 million units, shipments of digital video cameras are expected to jump 20% to around 1.1 million units.
Domestic shipments of DVD players are projected to have doubled to 350,000 units, and are expected to expand further to 750,000-900,000 units in 1999. Only about 200 stores currently rent out DVDs, but this is expected to increase sharply in 1999.
TV shipments in 1998 are expected to fall short of 10 million units for the first time in three years, although shipments of flat screen cathode-ray tube TVs were brisk. Videocassette recorder shipments are expected to remain unchanged at 6.9 million units.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Wednesday edition)
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