A sample of figures supplied by Retravision comparing sales of VCRs and DVDs between July and December 2001 and the same period for the previous year paint a surprising picture of the market.
For the 2000 period, VCRs held an 80 percent share of the market, ceding 20 percent to the newer disc-based technology. In 2001 DVD players grabbed a further 17 percent of the market, however sales of VCRs grew.
"The interesting thing is that even though it has lost a portion of its market share unit sales of VCRs increased 18 percent," said, managing director of Retravision and Digital Broadcasting Australia (DBA) director, Bob Scullin.
The figures defy predictions that the technology will steadily be replaced by DVD.
Internet piracy may be instrumental in expanding the home entertainment market.
A spokesperson for Betta Electrical said that Internet content is a driving force behind sales of DVD players, pointing out that many players support formats that can be downloaded and written to CD-R.
"Everyone has a computer now so everyone wants a DVD to play their [content]," he said, naming VCD and MP3 as the two file formats consumers were most interested in accessing in the living room.
Australia's experience with living room DVD technology contradicts the United States' where, according to a statement released by DBA earlier this week, sales of DVD players surpassed VCRs for the first time.
The DBA also took the opportunity to repeat assertions it made last year that DVD entertainment technology digital broadcasting will drive sales of widescreen televisions.
Scullin agrees, partially.
"I think initially [DVD] will drive sales of widescreen -- more so than digital broadcasting," he said. Until Sony released its digital widescreen TV you only had analogue widescreen out there, and set-top boxes aren't selling at an enormous rate."
He later added that sales of widescreen TVs only accounted for around two to three percent of total television sales throughout 2001, a period in which the company he manages saw unit sales of DVD players surge 89 percent.
