Asian ambitions in US consumer electronics.(Brief Article)

Screen Digest, October, 2000

Taiwanese manufacturer Sampo has become latest Asian company to try to crack the burgeoning US consumer electronics market. Sampo America (USA; 1/626 8563348; www.sampoamericas.com) division will be launched this autumn with full range of own-brand high definition television (HDTV) sets and DVD players.

DVD player shipments were up more than 300 per cent on 1998 in the US, although Screen Digest and DTC forecast only 6.3m HDTV households by 2005. In addition to established consumer electronics vendors such as Sony and LG from Japan and Korea, US has been targeted by new companies such as China's Konka Group (see 1999/189b1), selling cut-price DVD players and HDTV sets.