BenQ states prices of 16x DVD OEM burners to drop to $40

June 3, 2005

The
DVD market continues to see falling prices. Over at DigiTimes today, we can read
that BenQ Storage Buisiness Unit, associate vice president, Alpha Tasi,
stated that pricing for 16x OEM burners are to fall another 5 dollars to
$40 US soon. Presently, they are between $45 to 50 dollars and we can
expect this change as early as next quarter.

Pioneer
and Sony, the only Japanese brands relying on their own production, will
be subjected to production cost pressures arising from the further
decrease in OEM prices and therefore are expected to begin outsourcing
production on an OEM basis, Tsai pointed out. BenQ and Lite-On IT are
poised to compete for OEM orders from then two Japanese companies,
Taiwanese makers of optical disc drives
said.