facts, figures, & findings - Industry Trend or Event

Emedia Professional, Dec, 1999 by Michelle Manafy

MIXED signals for removable STORAGE

Despite strong growth in unit shipments, the worldwide removable storage market is having trouble breaking even. In 1998, revenues dropped 10 percent to $7.3 billion. Through 20003, they are expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of only 1 percent. Yet shipments have risen 34 percent to 123 million and by 2003, International Data Corporation expects them to be over 218 million. According to IDC, CD/DVD-ROM represents 82 percent of the unit volume in the market and 64 percent of its value. IDC believes that the strength of CD-RW's success, the recreational CD/DVD segment will be the fastest-growing part of the overall removable storage market with a unit CAGR of 47 percent through 2003. (508/935-4764; http://www.idc.com)

DVD player shipments 2 MILLION and RISING

Citing CEMA figures, The DVD Video Group says that 2.2 million DVD players were sold in the first nine months of the year. More than 900,000 DVD players were shipped in the third quarter, up 225 percent from the same quarter of 1998 according the DVD Video Group. Total shipments for 1999 are expected to exceed 3 million. The group said that the total player installed base is already at 3 million and should reach 4 million by the end of the year. (CEMA: 703/907-7600; http://www.cemacity.org. DVD Video Group: 323/845-0160; http://www.dvdvideogroup.com)

accidental DELETIONS dwarf data loss from VIRUSES

A recent poll by the American Business Research Corporation of NT system managers revealed that 88 percent believe accidental deletions are a source of corporate data loss, compared to only three percent caused by viruses. The poll also demonstrated that accidental deletions result in 30 times more destruction to important data than viruses. Eighty-one percent of the system managers felt that protecting company data is one of the most important aspects of their job. They also expressed a lack of confidence in the reliability of backups, with such factors as critical data being lost between backups (54 percent), media failure or human error leading to backup unreliability (26 percent), and individual workstations often being omitted from the backup schedule (14 percent). (323/669-1739; http://www.broadcasters.com)