GLOBAL MARKET GROWS AMERICA

Last year, Apex sold more DVD players and recorders in the United States than any other company but Sony. Apex's success illustrates the emergence of ultracheap electronics brands, which began to appear on shelves at Wal-Mart, Target, companies consumers feel will take care of them. Apex,like moset electronic firms, has ties to Chinese companies which force competitors to slash prices of their lower-end products.
Yet millions of shoppers find the low prices hard to ignore, buying brands they've never heard of based on price alone.

Electronics are becoming more affordable overall: with the price of DVD players plunging 75 percent over the past six years.

Another Chinese firm making a go in America is Haier's air conditioners and refrigerators. Haier's dominates Target's appliance aisles, and produce more than 300,000 refrigerators a year at its three-year-old South Carolina plant, among the first built by a Chinese company in the US