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The 2003 shipments of DVD recorders posted a significant increase from last year, according to the Japanese Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.

The shipments shot up 416% to 22.92 million units in the global market, and 362% to 5.93 million units in the Japanese market. The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) announced Thursday the result of its survey on the 2003 shipments of information devices, including displays, printers and magnetic storage devices.

JEITA expects that global sales of DVD recorders will hit 88 million units by 2006, and that the market share of DVD recorders will exceed that of CD-R/RW devices. The 2003 shipments of optical disc devices rose by 114% from a year earlier to 222 million units in the global market, and by 113% to 20.06 million units in the Japanese market.

Concerning displays, there was a growing move among users to replace CRT monitors with LCD monitors. The shipments of LCD monitors grew 166% Y-O-Y to 50.457 million units in the global market, and 134% to 6.187 million units in the domestic market. Shipments of CRT monitors rose 86% Y-O-Y to 67.28 million units in the global market, and 64% to 1.102 million units in the Japanese market.

As for monitor shipments by size, the shipments of 15-inch and smaller monitors grew only 118% Y-O-Y, while those of the 16- to 17-inch models soared by 217%. According to JEITA, the shipments of the 16- to 17-inch monitors are likely to surpass those of the 15-inch and smaller models by the end of 2004. The 2003 total sales of LCD monitors in the domestic market decreased slightly from a year earlier to 279.1 billion yen because of a substantial decline in their unit price.

The 2003 shipments of hard disk drives (HDD) posted a Y-O-Y increase both in the global and domestic markets, thanks to the recovery of the demand for computers. The HDD shipments surged 125% from a year earlier to 253.27 million units in the global market, and 119% to 23.86 million units in the domestic market.