DVD market: the next four years

The DVD market is a bright star on the technology economy horizon. The report, DVD Market: Players, Recorders, Media and Future projects that the total number of DVD systems in 2006 will be over 420 million units.
The total market for all types of DVD systems is growing at 31.4 per cent

compound annual growth rate (CAGR), while DVD recorders alone account for 271 per cent CAGR.

The growth of the DVD market has positive implications for the computer, consumer electronics, automotive and semiconductor industries. Semiconductors involved in DVD products are enjoying a 44 per cent CAGR and media production for DVD will exceed 1.6 billion discs by 2006 – a CAGR of 159 per cent.

Since DVDs players started shipping in Japan in 1996 and the first commercial title, A Hard Day’s Night was published on DVD the following year, DVD has enjoyed the most meteoric growth of any consumer electronics technology ever introduced. Pricing has reflected the rapid adoption of DVD with players falling from $504 in July 1998 to $129 in December 2002 with some units going for as low as $59.

Controversial issues such as copy protection and digital rights management are not deterring the momentum of the DVD market, the report confirms.

Despite early marketing experiments resulting in some questionable combinations of DVD, TV, Personal Video Recorders (PVR) and legacy VHS, the DVD market has seen over three years of stupendous growth. It shows no sign of slowing down and this year it’s poised to explode again as DVD enters new markets.

Markets for DVD technology are expanding from traditional standalone players to computer player/recorders (74 per cent CAGR), set-top boxes (31 per cent), mobile computers (47 per cent), and automobile multimedia systems (71 per cent CAGR). Other markets include industrial systems and appliances (74 per cent).