***rumor Only***

BenQ is getting out of the desktop optical drive market.

Rumor two: Santa isn't real ?

where it you get this from?

I'd like to know too where you heard this as frankly is sounds ludicrous.

[Unless maybe BenQ were quitting a market such as North America and keeping to the EU & Asia but not exiting the ODD market altogether.]

rumor 3: Americans and british love French People!!!

BenQ might sell their drive under Philips name only but I don't see them retirering totally now that they are considered as one of the best!!!

lol doubtful

If I remember correctly you work in the RMA dept and have lots of connections, so is this a "rumor" or rumor?

You know what...........I know your probably kidding but.........why not find another forum to post that crap.......a political forum or somewhere else than here. I don't take things out on the people in a country only the rulers of the country i disagree with........ Have a nice day from Missouri USA

I seriously doubt it as BenQ has made quite a name for itself in the DVDRW market. Maybe you mean they are going to stop selling drives under the BenQ and just manufacture for Plextor, Philips, Artec and others but this is seriously doubtful. BenQ has made a name for itself in the DVDRW market like LiteON did with the CDRW market.

dude, chill , he's just kidding, why make something of it?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Big Joke :P .... serzly. impossible from my pt of view

Would this explain why we can't get a DW1640 in the U.S. ?

Actually, I'm not kidding, I'm serious. We have begun testing different DVD burners. There is very little margin in making optical drives, which probably why Nu Tech stopped making their DVD burners as well.

This is from my purchaser at work. I'm sorry for starting what appears to be a bit of chaos. The reason I posted it as a "rumor" is because I do not have confirmation of this.

This may also mean that they will do the same thing that Nu Tech did, which is have another manufacturer make their drives and simple label them as their own.

Yes, I manage the RMA department at work and in the absence of our purchaser, purchase from our vendors, D&H Distributors, Synnex, Ma Labs, Tech Data, Microsoft Licensing, Althon Micro, etc.

Dtog, I asked my purchaser the exact same question about the DW1640 and he didn't know. He knows what is available and sometimes knows in advance what will not be available, sometimes product suddenly disappears from the distribution channel. Remember also that we are purchasing directly from the manufacturer for some of our parts and from large distributors for the rest so retail outlets/stores and online sellers will continue to sell product even after it's been discontinued because they already had stock.

A perfect example is Windows 98SE. A couple of years ago, we could no longer purchase Windows 98SE from our distributors because Microsoft had stopped producing it. At the same time, retail stores continued to sell it for months because they already had stock of it or their distributors had stock remaining in their warehouse.

Zevia, I never claimed I had "lots of connections," and I really don't appreciate being patronized. In an earlier post, I simply offered help to people who had a difficult time getting defective product RMA'd. I know from firsthand experience that it can sometimes be a real hassle or pain and being in the position that I am in, I might have information that could be helpful to people. Maybe you think I'm full of crap and a complete liar but I never said what you claim I did and actually don't care what you think.

maybe that's why the 1640 hasn't been released in the USA yet.....who knows huh??? look at the plextor 716AL drive that still hasn't been released here in the USA yet....stupid thing keeps getting pushed back every month....i'm getting impatient waiting for that plextor 716AL drive....but hey if that 1640 is released first...hmmmms decisions, decisions, decisions.....

Come on... 1640 is on the way. One of the local distributors here already lists them, and the price of the bulk 1640 is set at only $3 above the bulk 1620, thanks to 1640's late appearance. It's the retail version of the 1640 that may take a while to materialize.

38395 BENQ 16X DVDRW DW1640 BLACK BULK WITH NERO SOFTWARE DW1640 BLACK BULK New 0 47.50
38396 BENQ 16X DVDRW DW1640 COOLGREY BULK WITH NERO SOFTWARE DW1640 COOLGREY BULK New 0 47.50

But I thought that it's the 2nd-tier companies that are exiting and outsourcing their stuff to the likes of BenQ? So there's a little irony that the company that people outsource to will itself be outsourcing. But profit margins are indeed very low (good to see that classic market economics still work ), so I guess this rumor might be true. Time will tell.

he probably want to sell his BenQ at a higher price so he started this rumour

D'oh. I want the retail drive as the front bezel looks MUCH nicer.

Come on, it makes some sense. BenQ is quickly diversifying its hardware businesses and one high-end BenQ projector brings as much profit as 100 DVD burners. It wouldn't be the first time high-quality hardware disappeared from the market after the race to the bottom got too close to, well, the bottom.

On the other hand, they have invested quite a bit into developing blue-laser drive prototypes, and there will be plenty of profit when/if those drives start to sell for several hundred dollars a piece in moderate volume sometime around late 2006-2007. Just a guess, based on the history of CD and DVD hardware.

Grey retail drive is available in Europe... but if you want black or silver retail, it may be a problem as they seem to be distributed only in Asia, so far.

I dunno BenQ were showing off Blu-Ray prototypes recently and seem pretty close to Philips it doesn't seem possible that they are completely leaving the ODD market but never say never I guess...

Though I'm not quite sure what the state of BenQ's brand is how well known in the US (assuming thats were cerealkiller9 is located) but for example they could leave that market to someone like Plextor who are more well known & sells their BenQ re-branded drives and handles advertising, RMA's etc.

Any of the CD Freaks staff with contacts at BenQ able to shed any light though I doubt anyone from BenQ would say anything.

A possible answer to the mystery of why the 1640 is delayed is in the BenQ monthly sales report.

Perhaps they already did? Maybe the 1640 is actually made by Plextor and being rebadged by BenQ

no..... BenQ OEM for Plextor....meaning...Plextor drives are BenQ OEMs..

where the hell did you hear that from??...i just had a meeting with some BenQ PPl from Taiwan in Singapore recently.. and from the new products presented .. i dun think they are even one foot out of the OD market.. .....unless there were pulling my legs with those products.....i can show one thing for the products seen...


no ...just that orders to fill are a long queue... ...

the margin for all OD manufacuters are very low....even LiteOn...BenQ knows how to take care of low margins..(cant say too much )

We see soooo much of this crap here.......... Just another "I have no facts", "I heard through the grapevine", "I have a friend that has a friend that heard from his mother who is dating a guy that has a daughter that knows someone that has a boyfriend that works with a guy that read somewhere on the net that Benq was gonna stop producing OD's". Why bother posting any of this crap except to stir up more nonsense........ Amazing!

The staff closely monitors these types of threads to see if anything substantial will come out of it. If we closed them straight away it would not allow information to be presented for or against. I think thanks to eleewhm this one has run it's course.

@pcdoc
That kind of post is not appreciate. If you can't add to the discussion please don't say anything at all.

Thread closed