DVD recorders have been around for a few years, but as with most new products they have been bought mostly by so-called "early adopters"-people prepared to fiddle to link them to their PCs, or pay high prices for the first stand-alone machines that connect to a TV.

As is expected for DVD recorders, the take-off point for new products comes when slow initial sales suddenly accelerate towards a mass market. This averages six years after launch in America. Goods such as kitchen and laundry appliances have generally taken longer, but other goods like TVs and CD players often took off faster-mostly, it is thought, because families get more immediate satisfaction from them.