News Release：Pioneer Passes 5-million Unit Cumulative Sales of DVD Writers as No.1 in the World Share

September 16, 2003, Tokyo, Japan - Pioneer Corporation announces today that its cumulative worldwide shipment of DVD writers for PCs reached 5 million units at the beginning of September^*1. It is the landmark that establishes the company as the clear number one manufacturer of DVD writers^*2.

Pioneer has a strong heritage in the optical storage market. The company introduced the first laser disc player in 1979; the first home-use DVD player in 1996, the first industrial DVD-R writer "DVR-S101" in 1997 and the first home-use DVD recorder "DVR-1000" in 1999.

Also, Pioneer was a founding member of the DVD Forum, an industry organization that aims to improve customer satisfaction by proposing specifications and ensuring compatibility on DVD-R/DVD-RW products. The company has worked to establish the standards for DVD-R and DVD-RW formats, while endeavoring to promote the spread of the DVD-RW format.

In October 2002, as the global market for DVD writers for PCs approached 5 million units in the same year, Pioneer introduced DVR-A05, the world's first DVD writer capable of writing at 4x speed on DVD-R. With the success of this product, Pioneer's sales of DVD writers during that year reached 2.2 million units (or 44% of the world market), making Pioneer the undisputed market leader.

In 2003, the DVD writer global market will expand sharply toward 20 million units, in accordance with Pioneer survey. Pioneer expects to ship 5 million units in the same year (or 25% of the world market). In response to this significant increase in shipment, the company has continued to strengthen its production facilities for DVD writers both in Japan and China. Thanks to these efforts, its total monthly production capacity has reached 1 million units.

Pioneer regards the 5-million unit mark in the cumulative shipment of DVD writers as merely a step toward realizing its goal of "the world's No.1 in DVD business" as one of its business objectives under the group vision 2005 announced in 1998. The company will continue striving to create cutting-edge technologies and utilize these to develop new products that meet the diverse needs of its customers.