Digital TV Sales Up 134% In April
Staff -- TWICE, 5/27/2002
ARLINGTON, VA.—The digital television category saw its largest year-to-year monthly sales spike in April, as unit sales to dealers rose 134 percent compared to the same month last year, according to Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) figures.
Sales of DTV products, which includes integrated sets and monitor displays, totaled 122,215 units and $217 million in factory dollar volume. Dollar sales were up 120 percent for the month over a year ago.
"In the consumer electronics industry, April historically is not a stand-out month in terms of sales," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "DTV is a stand-out technology, however, and the accompanying sales numbers prove it — surpassing even the DVD growth rate for April, which totaled an impressive 72 percent."
CEA projects that 2.1 million DTV products — including integrated sets and monitors — will be sold in 2002, 4 million in 2003, 5.4 million in 2004, 8 million in 2005 and 10.5 million in 2006. April factory sales of DVD players were also very strong, CEA reported. The industry sold 1,090,767 units to dealers in April, representing a 72.8 percent increase over April 2001, while VCR unit sales to dealers in April 2002 totaled 552,041 — a 2.5 percent decline compared to the same month last year.
