Sanyo cuts price of DVD player pick-up heads

February 16, 2005

In an
effort to gain more market share in Taiwan, Sanyo
has cut the pricing of it's DVD player pick-up heads. Hard to imagine that
there is anywhere to cut pricing on these very inexpensive players, but
apparently this is an area of opportunity.

Japan-based Sanyo Electric has reduced its prices of pick-up
heads (PUHs) used in DVD players from US$4.2-4.3 last quarter to US$3.8,
currently, in the Taiwan market, according to Taiwan-based makers of DVD
players.

Acute Applied Technologies (Aatek), the largest Taiwan-based
producer of PUHs used in DVD players and optical disc drives, is expected
to be under competitive pressure from Sanyo. In order to maintain its
Taiwan market domination, Aatek has made a slight downward adjustment to
its quotation for DVD player PUHs to US$3.5, to maintain a price gap with
Sanyo, the makers indicated.

Aside from the attempt at gaining market share, it seems
this new pricing reflects a significant savings in cost to Sanyo, due to the
adoption of new lenses. Furthermore, Sanyo has revealed that its
prices of DVD-player PUHs will drop to US$3.5, in the second half of this year,
falling to US$3.2 by the end of 2005.

Source: DigiTimes