Major Taiwanese manufacturers of optical disc drives, including BenQ, Lite-On IT, Quanta Storage and Accesstek, are aggressively preparing to offer 16x DVD burners, hoping to start volume production, at the earliest, by the end of this quarter.
According to Taiwanese producers, Japanese companies, including Pioneer, NEC and Ricoh, are scheduled to launch 16x DVD burners by the end of the second quarter, or the beginning of the third. Taiwanese makers have been concentrating their R&D resources on developing 16X DVD burners in order to keep abreast of Japanese competitors.
Taiwanese companies appear to be competitive with Japanese companies in time to market for 16x DVD burners, partly because some Japanese brands have already stopped producing DVD burners themselves, and are assisting their Taiwanese OEMs with R&D. Another reason is that Mediatek, a leading IC design house in Taiwan, will offer 16x chipsets ahead of schedule, the Taiwanese makers indicated.
Story source:
digitimes.com.
