By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY: Aiptek, one of the camcorder market leaders in the USA, is now focusing on the Australian market with a core range of pocket-sized CMOS camcorders and a new High Definition model to be available in July.

“We want to develop the HD DV market in Australia,” AIPTEK International account manager, Jerry Hsieh.

“We will introduce the first HD camcorder with flash memory in Australia for under $200.”

Electronic Australia Group, run by Tony and Stewart Pack, are the Australian distributors for Aiptek and are currently shoring up retail support for the products ahead of the local launch of the company’s HD camcorders in July.

While still a relatively new name in the Australian market, Aiptek camcorders are a leading brand in the USA and have achieved a significant share of the world’s camcorder market.

“Aiptek currently has 20 per cent of the world’s global market in CMOS camcorders,” Hsieh said.

“In 2007 we produced 1.6 million camcorders; we produced 1.2 million in 2006. We are number six in the USA market in terms of sales value. Sony is number one. In terms of units we are around second or third in the USA market.

“We achieved this in only five years.”

According to 2007 sales results from the USA market conducted by NPD Group research, Sony is the leading camcorder brand in the USA in terms of sales value, followed by Canon, JVC, Panasonic, Hitachi and then Aiptek.

While a number of companies are producing flash memory camcorders, Aiptek pointed out that they were the first company to use this technology in camcorders.

“We were the first company to use flash based memory for camcorders and the first to create pocket-sized camcorders,” said Hsieh.

“We saw the potential of flash memory in terms of the size, the lower power consumption and we also predicted that the cost of flash-based memory would drop.”

The new Aiptek HD camcorders for the Australian market will record in 1080p, they utilise flash memory cards and a CMOS sensor.

Aiptek has ambitious goals. It has won iF Design Awards for its camcorders and is building its worldwide distribution. Currently the company has subsidiaries in the USA, Germany and China, in addition to its headquarters in Taiwan.

“We want to focus on HD DV and to achieve the world’s number two position within five years,” said Hsieh.