While 12x DVD recorders prices continue to fall, 16x DVD recorders are expected to remain at a stable OEM price of around US$ 60 to US$ 70 during the final quarter of this year according to Taiwan optical disc manufacturers.
Despite this forecast, 16x DVD recorders have fallen signifcantly over the past few months due to a large increase in production of these drives. The increased production came due to pressure for OEM orders from the leading PC brands including DELL and HP.
The likely reason for this stable price forcecast comes due to an expected increase in demand as the final quarter of the year is typically the peak sale period for optical drives. Also, technological restrictions is holding back volume production from other manufactuers. Finally, while there have been various new 16x DVD recorder brands over the past few months, there are no new entrants expected until next year. GristyMcFisty submitted the following news via our news submit:
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Earlier this year, as leading global manufacturers, including Lite-On IT and BenQ in Taiwan and Pioneer, NEC, Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) and Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology (TSST), ramped up production of 16x DVD burners and competed for OEM orders from such leading PC brands as Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP), the OEM price dropped from US$ 90-100 in the second quarter to US$ 70-80 in August, and then dropped even further to reach its current level, the makers explained. However, the price has recently stabilized, and no new entrants to the market are expected, the makers pointed out. Due to high technological barriers, second-tier makers, including Quanta Storage, Behavior Tech Computer (BTC) and Ultima Electronics have had to delay volume production. In addition, Foxconn, a leading EMS (electronics manufacturing services) provider does not plan to begin volume production of 16x DVD burners till the first quarter of 2005. The fourth quarter is also the traditional peak-sale period for ODD makers, so the Taiwan makers expect demand to increase. |
As DVD recorder prices have come down a lot in the past few months, these will likely replace DVD-ROM/CD-RW hybrid drives since the price difference is coming to the stage like comparing CD-ROM and CD-RW prices. Should DVD-Recorder prices fall any further, sales may even take over DVD-ROM sales also.
Finally, with 16x DVD recording speed in both plus and minus formats, the only new features one can look out for when comparing drives is quality, dual-layer speed, rewrite speed and DVD-RAM speed (if required).
Source: DigiTimes daily IT news
