Pressured with competition by Korean and Taiwanese makers of optical disk drives for over five years, Sninano Kenshi, which is best known for its electronic equipment division and printing equipment division’s Plextor brand-name, has reportedly decided to exit the market of consumer CD and DVD optical disk drives (ODDs) to concentrate on other product lines.

Shinano Kenshi, according to the article at Shinmai.co.jp Japanese web-site, is planning a serious reorganization of its domestic business, including layoffs. As a part of the reorganization, the production of optical disk drives (ODDs) will be reduced to “10% of the peak production levels” and the company will concentrate its business on industrial equipment and the Plextalk digital sound recording playback equipment for blind, the article says.

While Plextor still produces very high quality optical disk drives, including CD, DVD and Blu-ray recorders for consumers, as well as some unique products like PlexEraser, its optical drives cost two to three times more compared to similar products by competitors in Europe, which has caused gradual decline of sales of the company. Higher price is a result of high-quality component usage, but end-users and original equipment manufacturers are looking forward value much more than they are looking forward exceptional quality.

In the recent years Plextor also started to offer external hard disk drives, wireless adapters for projectors and digital video converters. The destiny of these product lineups is unclear.

While it is clear that Plextor now has different product lines, it is obvious that the brand is known for quality optical disk drives, which means that further diversification can lead to brand-name fading away.

Plextor officials did not return on enquiries seeking for a comment.