Taiwan-based Lite-On IT and BenQ, both newcomers in slim-type optical storage drives, have landed orders for slim-type combo drives from Hewlett-Packard (HP) and NEC, respectively, according to sources.
Lite-On IT expects to start shipping combo drives to HP in September, with monthly shipments at 150,000 units. In addition, the Taiwanese company has obtained orders to produce 20,000-30,000 combo drives for Sony, sources said.
BenQ started shipping combo drives to NEC in June, with initial monthly shipments estimated at several thousand units, sources said. In the fourth quarter, the company expects to start contract manufacturing a slim-type DVD+RW drive that it launched earlier, sources said.
The new orders signify intensified competition in the slim-type optical storage drive business, which has been mostly controlled by Japanese companies, industry observers said. Among the top five competitors in the business, Quanta Storage and Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) are the only companies not based in Japan, according to Quanta president C.C. Chien.
Although Lite-On IT and BenQ still trail behind the major players by significant margins at the moment, it is likely that the industry structure will be shaken up with more Taiwanese companies joining the competition, and drive prices may be driven down much faster than in the past, industry observers said.
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Source:
DigiTimes
