EVD players not selling in Shanghai - too expensive

January 9, 2004

According to this report at
China View, the home grown rival high definition format EVD is not exactly
flying off the shelves. This article indicates the much publicized player has been available since just after New Years and people have been staying away in droves.

There is not much difference between
the appearance of EVD and DVD players, and only tens of EVD players were
sold to date, far less than the DVD sales, said a seller with the Shanghai
Guomei Electronics Appliances Co Ltd.

"Many consumers consult
the EVD players, but the price of 1,980 yuan (US$ 238) flinched most of
them," said the seller, adding that a popular DVD player is only priced at
500-600 yuan on average.

Small output and high
technological content is cited as the main reason for the high prices of
EVD players, said an industry analyst. People can enjoy higher image
definition through EVD players, the analyst added.

The shortage of EVD movie
discs is another reason for the sluggish sales of EVD players. Eight major
movie companies around the world have granted the copyright of more than
1,000 movies to EVD producers, with a batch of movie discs expected to hit
the market before the Spring Festival, the analyst said.

Each EVD movie disk is
predicted to be priced at 50
yuan.

It may be
slow taking off, but I have a hunch that these players will become more
mainstream soon. But they need a massive drop in price. Backwards compatible with DVD, the smart consumer in China will want one of these once they become competitive in price. The deals have been struck to provide plenty of content in the royaly free EVD format. In addition, the adoption of said players will certainly cause the DVD royalties to drop again as they already have for the Chinese. Look out, they are going to put on the pressure.

Source: China View