Yolo used our newssubmit to tell us that Digitimes has an interview with the chair of Oak Technologies. Yesterday we reported that this company has introduced several chips on the market that will support several DVD formats.
Oak Technologies does however not make drives, they only make the chips that are used in them. As Oak is a pretty big player in the market they know what will be the future of optical storage, this is what the chairman has to say:
 Q: What do you see as the main trends of the optical storage market for this year and next year? |
A: For PCs and notebook computers, the integration of CD-RW and DVD rewritable devices will be the newest trend for the second half of this year, and it will enter a period of high growth. International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates combo drive sales will grow at a 58.1% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) from 2000 to 2005, while notebook-use combo drives are expected to rocket from 322,000 units in 2000 to 28 million units by 2004 for a CAGR of around 206%.
The current market is verifying these predictions. CD-RW will come into maturity as its speed reaches 48x in the second half of this year, coinciding with the anticipated boom in notebook DVD-ROMs and CD-RW combo drives in the second half of this year. Reasons behind this growth include: notebook computer shipments have grown 50% from last year, and DVD-ROM licensing fees are expected to decrease for use in notebooks, plus the cost difference between notebooks computers with slim-type combo drives and those with DVD-ROMs has come within acceptable standards for systems vendors. So, the combo drive market, particularly the slim-type combo drive market, is expected to take off this year.
DVD-recordables are expected to show explosive growth starting next year, mainly because DVD-recordable prices in the current consumer market have dropped to US$299 per unit, and may slide further to US$199 in the near future, becoming affordable for the average consumer. Currently, you can already find 2x DVD-RW drives and DVD+RW drives, and the next-generation 4x slim-type DVD drive will be out on the market in the third quarter. As OEM prices drop to US$150 in the second half of next year and US$100 by early 2004, the boom in DVD drives next year is foreseeable.
Oak will also be focussing on 48x DVD-ROM reading speed, which is considered to be the maximum for CD-R also. (altough some companies will release 52x drives), besides that also slim-combo drive chips will be one of their new products (for e.g. laptops).
Read the entire interview at Digitimes here.
Source: Digitimes.com
