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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Dorsey who wrote (34274)	7/13/1998 4:23:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

DVD players sales set a record in June............................. AT VSDA: DVD Hardware Sales Hit Record Pace - -July 13, 1998 By Greg Tarr DVD movie player sales for June hit a record that encourages the DVD Video Group to believe that hardware sales will reach the 1 million-unit mark by the end of the calendar year. At a press conference during the VSDA Show last week, Mike Fidler, Sony DVD product marketing VP, said June was a record month for DVD sell-in to retailers, with over 63,000 units sold, topping last October's record of 56,000 sales to dealers. The number helped the category top 260,000 sales to dealers so far this year. (Meanwhile, Emiel Petrone, DVD Video Group chairman, reported that to date some 1,500 DVD titles are available in the U.S., growing to 2,000 by year's end. So far this year, 2.8 million titles have been sold, and more than 4.3 million titles have been sold since the format's launch.) "Given the fact that June is not normally a very strong selling month for CE products, this record represents how well the category is doing from both an availability and consumer demand standpoint," Fidler said. Sony's DVD business has been "off the charts," he reported. "I have yet to fulfill back-orders since the introduction 14 months ago." Fidler predicted the success will continue, helping DVD hardware sales achieve the 1 million units by year-end, and "that clearly represents the opportunity we see to make the category a mass-market product." Industry inventory levels for DVD video players are low for both manufacturers and retailers, he reported, despite the more than 40 models from 20-plus vendors that are currently available. Recent announcements that Wal-Mart will carry DVD players in 1,300 stores, while Target will roll the product out across its 2,000 outlets, added "a tremendous level of credibility" for the long-term viability of the format, said Fidler. The impact of the success of DVD "goes well beyond player sales," he reminded, and is helping boost sales of home theater system components, such as Dolby Digital audio products and big-screen TVs. Retailers, too, reported strong results for the format. Best Buy's DVD products specialist Joe Pagano called DVD "the fastest-growing new technology in our company's 32-year history - faster than the VCR and faster than CD players. We are starting to see signs that the DVD will do for the video business what the CD did for the music business in the 1980s." Pagano said Best Buy's software-to-hardware ratio is averaging 28:1, and DVD software sales currently account for all of the chain's video software sales growth, while VHS sales are at a plateau. more......... user17.promise.com