Sources: BenQ resumes OEM production of DVD drives for Pioneer

January 17, 2005

Digitimes reports that according to their sources BenQ has landed an OEM order to manufacture 16x DVD-ROM drives from Pioneer. This means that Pioneer will shift from Asus to BenQ for the production of their DVD-ROM drives. BenQ already did production of DVD-ROM and DVDRW burners for Pioneer in the past but stopped this when it got in a joint venture with Philips.

Pioneer originally required Asustek use pick-up heads (PUHs), a main component of DVD drives, produced by Pioneer's business unit. However, the production cost of PUHs for Pioneer is quite high due to small volumes. In order to minimize the production cost of new 16x DVD-ROM drive models, Pioneer placed an OEM order with BenQ, which utilizes PUHs produced by Philips. Pioneer is globally the second largest vendor of DVD-ROM drives next to Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS).