Crystal clear picture, crisp sound and... 'fantastic' prices
Crystal clear picture, crisp sound and... 'fantastic' prices
Philips, one of the world's main consumer product makers,
opened its first Asia Pacific digital video disk (DVD)
manufacturing facility in Singapore on March 25. The company used
the occasion to discuss its marketing strategy in the Asia
Pacific and DVD's prospects in the region. The Jakarta Post
reporter Pandaya attended the event and filed this report.
SINGAPORE (JP): Digitally crisp sounds, crystal-clear pictures
and a vast range of features. You no longer have to leave home to
enjoy your favorite movies or music concerts. Now they are all at
your fingertips.
Philips' digital audio-video products give consumers all the
comfort and enjoyment modern technology has to offer.
To maintain its position in digital technology, Philips has
launched a range of products, ranging from video compact discs
(VCDs), DVD players, high-definition televisions and plasma
televisions.
Philips began marketing its DVD players last year. The
multistandard DVD-820, which plays both audio and video compact
disks (CDs), appeared in 1998. The DVD-860, produced later in the
same year, boasts features like built-in AC3 decoder and a three-
dimensional virtual surround sound system which provides a
cinema-like sound system.
Philips latest model is the DVD-725, which is available in
some countries in the Asia Pacific. This model, which has digital
output for multichannel audio signals, is expected to be
introduced to the Indonesian market in a few months.
To back up its DVD marketing across the world, Philips has
introduced flat plasma TV to create a home cinema. It also makes
a 65-inch, high-definition projection TV to receive digital
broadcast for the U.S. market. The price is steep, especially by
Indonesian standards.
Consider the prices quoted by Cosmas Subagus, a senior
executive at Philips Indonesia. The DVD-725 costs some Rp 4.5
million, the speaker set between Rp 5 million and Rp 80 million
while the Digital Theater Sound amplifier costs Rp 20 million.
If you think your television is just too dated and you cannot
resist the temptation of a high-resolution flat plasma
television, it will cost you another US$15,000 (about Rp 133
million). Or maybe you want the monstrous 65-inch projection TV.
This will cost you "only" $10,000.
It is hard to find flaws in the system's cinematic sound
quality. It would be really enjoyable if your house was spacious
so you could set aside a sound-proof room to serve as your home
studio. But if you live in a modest housing complex where houses
are close together, you would probably want to think twice before
deciding to buy the system.
In crisis-hit Indonesia, while VCDs are extremely popular,
DVDs are relatively unknown, although Japanese brands such as
Pioneer and Panasonic have aggressively advertised video players
which can play DVDs, VCDs, laser discs and audio compact discs.
DVDs are still hard to find at video rental stores. Also, DVDs
are much more expensive, about Rp 400,000, than VCDs, which you
can buy for about Rp 60,000. In some places in Jakarta, pirated
VCDs are sold for a mere Rp 12,000 or less.
Cosmas said Philips, like other brands, had its sales in
Indonesia badly disrupted by the crisis. Only some 600,000 TVs of
all brand names are expected to be sold this year and the company
is hopeful Philips will contribute 3 percent of the total sale.
In Indonesia, the Amsterdam-based Philips -- which employs
233,700 people worldwide -- is better known for its household
appliances, including lamps, rice cookers, blenders, hair dryers
and irons. Its TVs, video and audio products, which are generally
more costly than Japanese-made products, are purchased mostly by
the middle and upper classes.
Rob Savelkoul, general manager of Philips' digital video
business in Asia-Pacific, said it would take several years until
Indonesia is politically stable enough to recover its economic
strength. Only then can Philips expect to regain its business
position in Indonesia.
"It's a difficult situation for everyone," he told The Jakarta
Post.
Icon
It is predicted that DVD will be the icon of the digital age.
DVD offers 17 gigabytes of data, providing eight hours of movies
or 1.5 days of music.
Liew Hen Sang, Singapore's managing director of the economic
development board, said that DVD would become the medium of the
future and as ubiquitous as VCR and CD players.
"Almost all movie studios are now producing DVD content for
the marketplace. With the increasing availability of DVD titles
and attractive pricing, the DVD industry will flourish," Liew
said.
Independent researcher Dataquest predicted the worldwide
production of DVD players would rise threefold to 6 million units
this year, up from 2.2 million units last year.
It also is believed resolving the software piracy issue would
allow the DVD to sweep the global market in the years to come.
Philips DVD manufacturing facility in Tao Payoh, Singapore,
will manufacture DVD players for sale around the world.
Philips officials say the DVD market in the Asia Pacific is
growing as fast as the market in the United States and even
faster than the market in Europe.
Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are said to be the strongest
markets for DVD at the present, with the equipment hitting the
mass market. Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and China are seen
as growing markets.
In China, according to Calvin Goh, the product manager of
Philips DVD, DVD sales are expected to reach one million units
this year and are projected to hit 7.7 million units in 2001.
"We intend to remain the dominant player in China, the
Philippines and New Zealand, building further on our already
strong position... In all other markets we intend to remain
among the top three manufacturers and where possible to
consolidate and further strengthen our market position," Goh
said.