Taiwan Makers of Blu-Ray Discs May Leave Japanese Manufacturers Behind.

As Blu-Ray Discs Are Becoming Commodity, Taiwan Makers Are Taking Over Lead

[08/04/2010 09:52 PM]
by Anton Shilov

As Blu-ray disc media is becoming commodity and Japan-based makers are refocusing on more expensive BDXL media, Taiwan-based manufacturers may take over the lead in terms of volumes, according to market rumours.

Sony, Sharp and TDK have reportedly started to shift their focus of blank Blu-ray disc production from 25GB BD-R and BD-RE (rewritable) to 3- and 4-layer BDXL. At the same time companies like CMC Magnetics and Ritek are ramping up production of "traditional" Blu-ray media and will surpass Japanese rivals in terms of unit market share sometime late in 2010, a report from DigiTimes web-site claims.

Both Taiwanese chemical companies have already expanded production capacities for 25GB BD-R media and Ritek also plans to initiate manufacturing of 50GB BD-R discs in late 2010.

Ritek reportedly plans to capture 10% of BD blank media market in 2011. Plans of CMC are uncertain at this point. However, as the DVD market demonstrated several years ago, Japanese companies quickly lose interest in manufacturing of products as soon as they become commodity.

Tags: Blu-ray, CMC Magnetics, Ritek, Sony, TDK, Sharp

Discussion

Comments currently: 1
Discussion started: 08/06/10 09:33:41 AM
Latest comment: 08/06/10 09:33:41 AM

[1-1]

Maybe we can finally afford Blu-Ray writable disks. If there was ever a "price-fix" on anything, it was Blu-Ray writables.

Too late to investigate for price fixing and it probably won't matter but if history serves as a lesson the disks not made in Japan will probably (at least initially) make as many "coasters" as dependable disks.