HP lowers LightScribe media licensing fee to boost support

July 27, 2006

While most people don't think twice of using a permanent marker or CD pen for labelling their written CDs, for those who are interested in printing art work on their CDs, there are two common methods - using inkjet printable CDs with a CD compatible printer or using a LabelFlash or LightScribe drive with compatible media. LabelFlash and LightScribe both have the advantage of being able to use the drive's own laser to 'burn' the label and the surface is water resistant. However, there is one drawback in that the label is monochrome (shades of a single disc's backing colour).

Like the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, LabelFlash and LightScribe drives are both incompatible with each other and thus require suitable matching media to 'burn' a label. While the media just requires a suitable coating to support the technology like how inkjet compatible CDs need a suitable matt surface, both formats involve licensing fees, thus bumping up the price of LightScribe and LabelFlash media.

However, despite both formats being out on the market for quite a while now, their licensing fees have put off many optical disc manufacturers from taking on the technology and so far only CMC Magnetics and Prodisc Technology are the only two to manufacture LightScribe media and Fujifilm is the only Taiwan manufacturer of LabelFlash media. As a result, HP which backs the LightScribe format has lowered its licensing costs to around US$250,000 to US$300,000 to encourage more Taiwan optical disc manufacturers to take on the technology. Unfortunately, so far HP's lowering of its LightScribe licensing for optical drives has not been as successful as HP would have liked and thus HP is willing to negotiate licensing costs with interested Taiwan based manufacturers. Thanks to GristyMcFisty for letting us know about this news:

With CMC Magnetics and Prodisc Technology the only two Taiwan-based makers adopting LightScribe, HP's promotion of the direct labeling technology in Taiwan has fallen short of expectations, the sources pointed out. HP lowered its initial licensing fee to produce LightScribe drives to encourage more manufacturers to make optical drives using the technology. HP is willing to negotiate the amount of the initial licensing fee and royalty payments with interested Taiwan-based makers, the sources indicated.

Several Taiwanese makers of optical discs, including Ritek, Gigastorage and Daxon Technology, are evaluating the feasibility of adopting LightScribe, the sources noted.

The full article can be read on DigiTimes here.

In my opinion, Hewlett Packard would probably have much better success with its LightScribe technology if they got rid of the LightScribe licensing costs for optical drives. Making a wider selection of brands of LightScribe media is not really going to be of much use if the consumer is not willing to pay the extra few quid to buy a LightScribe capable write instead of a regular writer. However, if there was no LightScribe licensing costs with optical drives, chances are that manufacturers would be more willing to add this as a standard feature. This in turn would mean a higher penetration of LightScribe drives and thus more potential customers for LightScribe media.

Source: DigiTimes Systems