Taiwan-based vendors BenQ, Liteon (made by Lite-On IT) and Micro-Star International (MSI), as well as their foreign competitors, Sony, LG Electronics and Buffalo, have lowered retail prices for external slim-type 8x DVD burners in the Taiwan market, competing in a segment where demand is rising along with the growing popularity of netbooks, according to local retail channels.
As a result, monthly sales volumes of external slim-type 8x DVD burners have increased largely compared to the first half of 2008, the sources indicated.
In anticipation of the growing demand, optical disc drive (ODD) makers Lite-On IT and Quanta Storage plan to increase output of external slim-type DVD burners in the first quarter of 2009, according to industry sources.
| Taiwan market: Retail prices for external slim-type 8x DVD burners | |||
| Own-brand vendor | Code name of product | Price in NT$ | |
| Taiwan-based | BenQ | TW200D | 2,259 (US$69) |
| Liteon | eSAU108 | 2,399 | |
| MSI | DES-8AS-A | 2,399 | |
| NU (subsidiary of Quanta Storage) | NU 8x | 2,690 | |
| International | Sony | DRX-S70U | 2,890 |
| LG | CP08NU10 | 2,499 | |
| Buffalo | DVSM-P58U2 | 2,599 | |
| Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) | T40N | 2,299 | |
Source: PChome Online, Yahoo! Kimo, and Tsann Kuen, compiled by Digitimes, December 2008
Article translated by Adam Hwang
