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To: DiViT who wrote (39614)	4/2/1999 5:03:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

DVD players are a hot product in Malaysia. The 220k unit market last year................................................. news-real.com DVD fast gaining global acceptance The New Straits Times THE Digital Versatile Disk, or DVD, is poised to become the icon of the digital age and Philips, a major player in the market. For the layman, the DVD means longer playtime for music and movies with better picture and sound quality. For the technophile, it offers 17 gigabytes of data, 18 hours of movies or one-and-a-half days of non-stop music. The DVD will become as ubiquitous as the VCR or CD player soon. It is already the hottest rage all over the world and destined to become the medium of the future. Worldwide production of DVD players is expected to rise threefold to six million this year, up from 2.2 million last year. Philips, which developed the CD in the early 1980s, is one of the co- inventors of the DVD - the new worldwide industry standard of technology that is destined to change our home cinema experience. When first launched in the United States in the spring of 1997, the DVD gained fast acceptance among the industry and consumers alike. The system also received encouraging response when it rolled out in Asia last year. "We believe that DVD will in time take over from today's existing media - the video cassette and the VCD - as the delivery medium of the future," Philips general manager (disc systems) Frank Pauli said at a regional media event in Singapore last week. He said based on worldwide market forecast, between four and five million DVD players were expected to be sold this year, with a continuing growth trend. "Longer-term projections are always hard to make, but 25 million DVD players being sold in 2002 would not be impossible," he said. Pauli said the product, which was launched in most Asian markets in late 1997 and early last year, had already secured strong market positions, especially in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. "In these markets, sales of DVD players have already reached mass market positions over the past year," noted Philips DVD product manager Calvin Goh. He said Malaysia was among the key markets with Philips having sold over 33,000 DVD players since its introduction last year, representing 15 per cent of the market share. "We expect sales to double next year," he said. About 10 consumer electronic manufacturers are now competing in the market with a range of over 20 models. Philips' range of DVD players now cost RM1,200 to RM1,900 per unit. Prices have fallen by about 25 per cent over the past year. "This year, we expect the DVD price to fall below US$300 (RM1,140) for the first time," he said. Player sales, Goh added, were being matched by rapid growth in software penetration, with DVD software titles priced from RM69 to RM100 each. (Copyright 1999)