This holiday season, electronics companies and computer makers hope DVD "burners," or recorders, will become a hot new product, following the success of compact-disc burners in recent years. Another industry, the movie business, has reason to dread the same prospect.
Until recently, DVD burners appealed only to a narrow, high-tech audience. That is now changing, and it is likely to accelerate with the holiday season. World-wide shipments of DVD burners totaled slightly more than 300,000 in 1999, according to technology research firm International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass. This year, the firm projects 4.32 million, with the numbers mounting even faster in the coming few years.
|