help create a profitable new industry for Bermuda appear to be healthy.

Electronics company Philips has sold its complete run of 25,000 compact disc interactive players since the product was launched last October.

That is good news for Bermuda-based Five Rings, which aims to produce computer software for the compact discs used in the new system.

A CDI player is a cross between a video cassette player and a music CD player.

It plays a compact disc which looks like a conventional music CD but, instead of holding just sound, stores a mix of sound, images (both moving and still), text, data and graphics.

Mr. Rick Morbey, the founder president of Five Rings who has worked with Philips to develop the technology, said he was encouraged by the interest shown in CDI.

"What is particularly interesting to us is that more software discs per player have been sold than expected,'' he said.

"When CD audio was launched, people were buying typically five to seven discs per player, but this has gone up to 10 to 12 discs with CDI.

"That is a good indication that the global market will be very, very significant.'' The early signs were that the multi-media CDI industry worldwide would be worth anything between $5 and $25 billion by 1995, said Mr. Morbey.

But his company, which earned no income in the last six years while the product was under development, was struggling to cash in, he added.

"We have the knowledge to produce software now, but we don't have sufficient capital to start the job,'' he said.

"We've had a lot of difficulty in attracting investment. I don't know why.

This is an ideal industry for Bermuda and has enormous potential.'' All the Philips CDI players produced so far have been sold in the US, but the company plans to launch them in the UK in May -- ahead of schedule -- due to positive retail and consumer reactions in the US.

The CDI players will also be launched in Japan on April 25, where they will be soldwith a golf game disc, and the package retailed for 140,000 yen ($1,075).

MR. RICK MORBEY -- encouraged by worldwide sales of CDI players.