Outside of Japan, DVD-RAM is generally ignored by the DVD enthusiast community. However, projections from Semico Research are showing a bright future for the DVD-RAM format which now finally starting to gain some popularity in western markets which have been slow for the format thus far.
Semico Research projected that shipments of DVD recordable devices will reach 23 million devices in 2005, and increase to 90 million in 2009.
The reason for the growth has been credited to lower prices, better features and products becoming more user-friendly. "While DVD-RAM compatible devices, in both DVD set top recorders and DVD PC drives enjoy wide success and support in Japan, the United States is slowly catching up, both in terms of DVD recorder penetration and DVD - PC drive configurations," said Tony Jasionowski, Executive Director for the DVD-RAM Promotions Group.
In Japan, DVD camcorders have been very successful and consumers like the option of recording to dual-sided DVD-RAM discs, which can then be transferred directly to a consumer electronics-based DVD recorder for playback on a TV or to a computer for editing.
400,000 DVD camcorders shipped in 2003, followed by 1.1 million in 2004 and now over 3 million are expected to have been shipped by the end of 2005.
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