NEC Electronics to double Blu-ray sales in 2 years

Japan's NEC Electronics Corp said on Tuesday it expects to double sales of its Blu-ray products in the next two years by matching steep price falls hitting its clients, manufacturers of DVD players.
NEC Electronics, which competes with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Broadcom Corp and Sigma Designs Inc, aims to take over half the global Blu-ray chip market by March 2011 from an expected 40% at the end of March 2009.
By pushing the world's first chips that pack on a single sliver of silicon signal processors and memory to control graphics, audio and other functions, the NEC Corp unit aims to raise sales of its Blu-ray products to 40 bln yen ($378 mln) in the year ending March 2011, executives said.
"We've gained an edge over our rivals with this chip," NEC Electronics Associate Vice President Shigeo Niitsu told reporters at a news conference. "We will do what it takes to keep pace with market price falls of 30% to 40% to keep our lead."
The February defeat of Toshiba Corp's HD-DVD discs in an optical-disc format war against Blu-ray discs championed by Sony Corp has cleared the way for Blu-ray suppliers to cash in on the growing home movie market.
But price competition remains stiff as client makers of high-definition DVD players race to cut costs and develop the first players to sell for under $200 — commonly seen as the threshold to herald a boom in the next-generation home video market.
In Blu-ray drives, NEC Electronics held a 60% share of the global market in the year ended March and competes against Matsushita and Renesas, a joint chip venture between Hitachi Ltd and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
Shares of NEC Electronics were down 6.8% at 2,590 yen at 0354 GMT, against a 2.0% fall in the benchmark Nikkei average.