ESS Technology, Inc. today announced that its DVD solution shipments have exceeded 500,000 units during the fourth quarter 1999, making it one of the fastest growing products in the company history. ESS announced that it had begun initial DVD production shipments in September 1999 and ramped to over 500,000 units during the last quarter of the year.

According to Dataquest, a market research firm, 1999 worldwide production of DVD players has exceeded 6 million units, making DVD the fastest growing product in consumer electronic history, besides Video Compact Disk (VCD). Recent market research from Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) showed North America alone sold over 3.5 million DVD players in 1999. Worldwide DVD players in
2000 are expected to grow to exceed 10 million units.

“I am very pleased at the speed that our customers have adopted our new DVD solution,” stated Robert Blair, President and CEO of ESS Technology. “Our 3rd generation DVD chip provides the lowest cost, high-performance DVD solution available today.”

At the annual Consumer Electronic Shows held in Las Vegas last week, many of the OEMs exhibited their latest DVD players using ESS’s solution. Major Japanese and Taiwanese OEMs such as Denon, Sony, Acer, Sampo, Raite and Diotech; and Apex and Shinco in China with ESS’s DVD solution can be found at retail stores worldwide, including Best Buy, K-Mart, CompUSA, and Sears in the U.S.