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To: Helios who wrote (33802)	6/12/1998 10:22:00 AM
From: Don Dorsey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

The recordable DVD will be at least as big as the recordable Cd. Philips tries to build digital empire <Picture>4:28 p.m. ET (2029 GMT) June 11, 1998 THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Electronics giant Philips aims to carve out a leading position for itself in tomorrow's digital world - and this time it won't be tripped up by poor marketing, the chairman of its consumer electronics division said Thursday. "By 2005 ... Philips aims to be a leading supplier of digital content capture, transmission, display and manipulation,'' Doug Dunn told Reuters in an interview. The division is poised to launch or has recently launched a range of digital consumer products, such as the audio CD recorder, the DVD (digital video disc) video player, digital television and a series of digital cameras. It is also active in the mobile communications market, having teamed up with Lucent Technologies of the U.S. in 1997. Dunn said initial sales of the audio CD recorder, unveiled in September and rolled out fully in November last year, were virtually double target. "Demand has exceeded expectations,'' he said. "We will exceed targets almost by a factor of two.'' He declined to put a precise figure on sales, saying only that "quite a bit more'' than 100,000 units would be sold in Europe-currently the product's lead market-in the first year, with rest of world sales expected at about the same level. Sales had been helped by the fact that the CD recorder was regarded as a extension to the CD player and that it did not dangle a particularly hefty price tag, Dunn said. By contrast digital TV, slated for launch in the United Kingdom this year to be followed in 1999 by Spain, Scandinavia, and shortly after by Benelux, would get off to a slower start, he said. "Digital TV is a different animal altogether. It's a big-ticket item, positioned at the up-end of the market,'' he said. First models were priced at around $6,000 to $8,000, he said. Dunn earlier told delegates at a consumer products fair that Europe consumers were expected to buy some three million digital television sets by 2000. In the U.S. all households were expected to have switched from analog to digital television by 2006, he said. Dunn said Philips' audio recorder was one of the first products to have reaped the benefits of the company's revamped marketing approach.