paraver
Power Member
It's pretty clear that the next near challenge for the optical storage industry will be marketing double layer media. While drives capable of writing to double layer media slowly make their entrance on the market the big issue seems to be the media.
Japanese Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) is currently the only known manufacturer of the media but according to Digitimes also the Taiwanese manufacturers (Ritek, CMC) are planning to start their production as soon as the end of this quarter of the start of the next quarter.
The disc manufacturers are under pressure to meet the production schedules of Japanese makers such as Sony, and Taiwanese competitors such as BenQ and Lite-On IT, who all plan to launch DVD+R or DVD-R DL burners beginning mid-May, the top Taiwanese optical disc makers indicated.
Ritek is undertaking trial production of DVD+R/-R DL discs for certification by potential clients and expects to begin volume production at the end of June, according to the company.
Because Philips and Pioneer have adopted stricter licensing terms for DVD+R DL than for DVD+R/-R, there will be technological barriers for small makers to join competition for OEM orders for their DVD+R DL discs, CMC pointed out. The OEM price level for DVD+R DL discs would not drop so fast as that for DVD+R/-R discs, the company added.
This means that MKM will probably have the monopoly on the double layer production for a while and this will probably result in high prices of the media. Ritek will likely do the production for Ricoh which will also be one of the early brands on the market.
A while after that we can expect that Ritek and CMC can release double layer media by their own brand which will likely cause a price drop of 25-30%. Read the entire story at Digitimes.
In: Digitimes (http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article1.asp?datePublish=2004/05/04&pages=A8&seq=55)
Japanese Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) is currently the only known manufacturer of the media but according to Digitimes also the Taiwanese manufacturers (Ritek, CMC) are planning to start their production as soon as the end of this quarter of the start of the next quarter.
The disc manufacturers are under pressure to meet the production schedules of Japanese makers such as Sony, and Taiwanese competitors such as BenQ and Lite-On IT, who all plan to launch DVD+R or DVD-R DL burners beginning mid-May, the top Taiwanese optical disc makers indicated.
Ritek is undertaking trial production of DVD+R/-R DL discs for certification by potential clients and expects to begin volume production at the end of June, according to the company.
Because Philips and Pioneer have adopted stricter licensing terms for DVD+R DL than for DVD+R/-R, there will be technological barriers for small makers to join competition for OEM orders for their DVD+R DL discs, CMC pointed out. The OEM price level for DVD+R DL discs would not drop so fast as that for DVD+R/-R discs, the company added.
This means that MKM will probably have the monopoly on the double layer production for a while and this will probably result in high prices of the media. Ritek will likely do the production for Ricoh which will also be one of the early brands on the market.
A while after that we can expect that Ritek and CMC can release double layer media by their own brand which will likely cause a price drop of 25-30%. Read the entire story at Digitimes.
In: Digitimes (http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article1.asp?datePublish=2004/05/04&pages=A8&seq=55)