Pioneer, NEC, Sony and Matsushita to shift R&D focus on blue laser products

November 2, 2004

Digitimes reports that Lite-On IT, BenQ, Hitachi-LG and Toshiba-Samsung
Storage Technology will become the four largest optical disc drive
manufacturers. Probably because currently the DVD-recordable format research and
development is mainly tweaking and not in inventing new technology. The article
also states that several Japanese companies which are usually the first
companies to come with new products have shifted their research and development
efforts to Blu-Ray.

The top-four makers will each have an annual production capacity of 25-45 million optical drives, these makers indicated.The second tier of optical-drive makers will include Pioneer, NEC, TEAC and two Taiwan-based vendors, Asustek Computer and Quanta Storage, while Ultima Electronics, AOpen, Accesstek and Foxconn, all Taiwan-based companies, will comprise the third tier, the makers noted.

Pioneer and NEC are decreasing their optical-drive
production and, along with Sony and Matsushita Electric, shifting their
R&D focus to next-generation Blu-Laser technology, the makers
added.

Currently our poll (left below) shows that a lot of
visitors believe in Blu-ray. Read the entire article here.

Source: Digitimes.com