Inspired by a booming market for CD-RW disk drives, local manufacturers are gearing up to produce drives that unite all the major formats -- DVD, CD-ROM, CD-RW and CD-R -- in a single unit.
"In October Aopen will have a combo product, with DVD plus RW," said Tony Yang, marketing manager at the Acer Group affiliate. The product would also be able to read CD-ROMs, and read and write CD-R disks, he said.
DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) drives and the various CD drives all use 5-inch disks, but DVD drives can store about six times more data per disk and are expected to gradually take market share away from CD. Data can be written to CD-R disks once, while CD-RW disks can be rewritten many times. There is currently no universally accepted standard for writable DVD drives; most current drives can read disks, but can't write them.
Combining the various functions into one unit had not been a particularly difficult job for Aopen, Wang claimed. "I think the components are almost the same, but... they have to do some compatibility testing." While initially, the combo product will also need separate controller chips for DVD and CD functions, in the future, Wang said, "that will be combined into one chipset."
Wang accepted that the 'combo drive' would be more expensive than either a DVD or CD-RW drive, but stressed that it would cost less than the two types of drives combined. The retail price is still uncertain, but "around NT$13,000" was Wang's estimate.
The advent of the 'combo drive' would not curtail Aopen's CD-RW production, which currently stands at around 10,000 to 15,000 CD-RW drives per month, Wang said. "We will produce them at the same time, because I think they are different market segments."
The interest in 'combo drives' is partly driven by falling prices for CD-RW drives, which have recently been much more profitable than the CD-ROM and DVD formats. Typical prices had fallen from around NT$15,000 to NT$10,000 in only three months, Wang said.
At the same time, in a pattern familiar to makers of computer hardware, production volume is growing. "Maybe next year [CD-RW] will be the mainstream", Wang predicted. "Compared with DVD and CD-ROM, the CD-RW market will grow very quickly." Daniel Lee, spokesman for computer peripheral manufacturer, Behavior Tech Computer (BTC), said his company is still uncertain about the market for drives that combine DVD and CD-RW. "Maybe we will make a product, but maybe not now," Lee said.
Right now BTC's output for CD-RW is about 5,000 per month, at most 10,000, said Lee, adding that last month, it produced almost 600,000 CD-ROM drives. "So CD-RW only occupies a very tiny share of our market," he said. "I dare not say it's peanuts, but actually it only occupies a small portion. So maybe we will focus on CD-ROM drives."
BTC's main reason for producing CD-RW drives lies in keeping its engineering know-how up to date, and in maintaining links with customers, Lee explained. The company makes most of its money producing large quantities of low-end, low-margin products.
Although a number of Taiwanese companies are ready to sell large quantities of DVD or 'combo drives', Lee believes few, if any, will be able to do so this year. Disagreement over royalties payable to the foreign inventors of DVD technology, and shortages of key components will hinder their plans, he believes. BTC, for example, may only be able to produce 1,000 DVD drives per month this year, whatever the demand, he said.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
‘NARWHAL’: The indigenous submarine completed its harbor acceptance test recently and is now under heavy guard as it undergoes tests in open waters, a source said The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, yesterday began sea trials, sailing out of the Port of Kaohsiung, a military source said. Also known as the “Narwhal,” the vessel departed from CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard at about 8am, where it had been docked. More than 10 technicians and military personnel were on deck, with several others standing atop the sail. After recently completing its harbor acceptance test, the vessel has started a series of sea-based trials, including tests of its propulsion and navigational systems, while partially surfaced, the source said. The Hai Kun underwent tests in the port from
RSS