DVD RACKS UP GAINS IN UNITS, DISCS.Byline: Dave McNary McNary may refer to:
The fledgling DVD format See VOB and DVD. received another boost to its status Monday as an industry trade group reported first-quarter shipments of 390,000 players and sales of 10 million discs. The report by the DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. Video Group shows that the 2-year-old format has shed its flash-in-the-pan status, based on the strength of first-quarter activity. During that 90-day period, 24 percent of the current ``installed base'' of 1.6 million players was shipped along with 33 percent of the 30 million discs shipped. ``These impressive shipment numbers for first quarter 1999 indicate the overwhelming consumer demand,'' said Emiel N. Petrone, chairman of the trade group and an executive with Philips Electronics. The trade group also estimated that there are 2,500 titles available in the format and projected that that figure will hit 4,000 by the end of the year. Jay Kim Chang-Jun "Jay" Kim (Korean: 김창준) (born March 27, 1939) is a politician from the U.S. state of California. Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea. During the Korean War, his home was destroyed. , an analyst with Paul Kagan Associates, said the format's gains are not a surprise due to the rapid decline in player prices - now under $300 for bare-bones machines - and the increased supply of titles. ``We think there will be about 4 million players sold this year,'' he added. ``It's part of the growing trend toward digital entertainment.'' DVDs debuted in March 1997 with a few dozen titles and and the first players selling for at least $700. The discs are the same size as compact discs and offer digital clarity, six-channel sound, instant rewind re·wind tr.v. re·wound , re·wind·ing, re·winds 1. To wind again or anew. 2. To reverse the winding of (recording tape or camera film). n. 1. The act or process of rewinding. and massive amounts of information such as movie trailers, screenplays, interviews and foreign-language soundtracks. Stock of Chatsworth-based Image Entertainment, a wholesaler converting its core business from laserdisc An earlier optical disc used for full-motion video and interactive training. It was introduced in the late 1970s and became obsolete in the 1990s. Videodisc systems based on a stylus were introduced (see CED), but only the optical-based LaserDisc survived, although never very popular. to DVD, rose 25 cents to $6.9375 a share Monday following a gain of 81.25 cents in the previous session. Despite the growth of the DVD business, the issue has been hammered ham·mered adj. 1. Shaped or worked with a metalworker's hammer and often showing the marks of these tools: a bowl of hammered brass. 2. Slang Drunk or intoxicated. Adj. in recent weeks and hit a 1999 low of $5.875 on March 31 before rebounding during the past two sessions. In January, Image had traded above $12 following reports of strong sales gains during the holiday season. Analyst Steven Hart of Commonwealth Associates, who has a $20 price target for the stock over the next 12 months, said the absence of new developments since then has caused the stock to drift drift, deposit of mixed clay, gravel, sand, and boulders transported and laid down by glaciers. Stratified, or glaciofluvial, drift is carried by waters flowing from the melting ice of a glacier. downward. ``It's definitely not performed the way I thought it would,'' Hart said Monday. ``Nothing has changed with the company and I still expect the stock to reach the target. There was a lot of DVD growth in the first quarter of this year and the format is taking off just as expected.'' |
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