Jari Ketola
5 Oct 2000 6:45
Only three and a half years after the introduction of the format, DVD-player sales have broken all records as the 10 millionth player was shipped. No other consumer electronics product has managed to reach the 10 million level in such a short period of time (including VCR and Compact Disc).
Fueling this growth is the enthusiastic support of movie studios and record labels, which are releasing more than 250 new DVD-Video titles each month. In response, DVD replicators have increased their capacity by more than 150 percent for the second half of 2000 over the same period last year in preparation for the extraordinary anticipated growth throughout the holiday selling season.
"The milestone of shipping 10 million DVD-Video players is regarded as an indicator of mass market acceptance," said Emiel N. Petrone, chairman, DVD Entertainment Group and executive vice president, Philips Entertainment Group, Worldwide. "We know that shortly we will achieve 10 percent household penetration - a benchmark of success for any consumer electronics product."
Now if only we could get rid of the moronic region coding scheme. That would really boost the DVD-player sales outside the North American region.