Digitimes reports that currently 30% of the drives sold by Taiwanese manufactures are DVD-ROM drives. Manufacturing capacity is still increasing and this will make the drives cheaper in the end:
It still remains a question when DVD-ROM will overtake CD-ROM as the main media- and data-reading format. Despite the lower prices and tighter margins that plague the CD-ROM sector, CD-ROM drives are forecast to hold well over 40% of Taiwan's drive production this year, according to the Market Intelligence Center (MIC). |
Per-unit CD-ROM drive contract prices have dipped to as low as US$17, a level that may have hit bottom and left little space for further declines, according to the manufacturers. For DVD-ROM drives, however, they expect price quotes '“ currently nearing US$30 '“ to further drop to US$25-28 in the fourth quarter.
Read the entire story here, where you will also read the DVD-ROM could be a lot cheaper if the Taiwanese makers had not to pay an average of US$10 or more per drive shipped to patent holders...
Source: Digitimes.com
