CD To DVD Transition Eased
By Joseph F.ÿKovar
Santa Barbara, Calif.
7:37 PM EDT Wed., June 17, 1998
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A barrier for moving to DVD from CD as a data storage medium has been removed as the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) announced Wednesday that 31 drive manufacturers have requested applications for the use of the MultiRead specifications.
MultiRead, an optical drive specification ratified by OSTA members in July 1997, enables CD-Audio, CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW disks to be read on current and future CD and DVD devices.
The 31 vendors seeking applications for use of the MultiRead spec represent 98 percent of CD and DVD optical drive shipments worldwide, according to OSTA.
Ray Freeman, president of Santa Barbara, Calif. based analyst firm Freeman Associates and head of OSTA, said the adoption of MultiRead should help VARs and resellers enjoy healthy sales of CD products. "Their customers can make the transition to DVD any time they want without worrying about whether they can move their data with them," he said.
This, Freeman claims, will help keep CD's around for a little longer. Freeman said he previously estimated that DVD would overtake the CD market in the year 2000, "but now I wouldn't be surprised if it (a healthy CD market) goes to 2001. CD will be the predominate technology in this decade, with DVD starting to take over in the next decade."
Thirteen companies have already been approved for the MultiRead license, including Actima Technology Corp., Taipei, Taiwan; Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif.; Hitachi America Ltd., Brisbane, Calif.; LG Electronics, San Jose, Calif.; Lite-on Technology Corp., Taipei, Taiwan; Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics, Osaka, Japan; Mitsumi Electric Co., Tokyo, Japan; Philips Components, San Jose, Calif.; Pioneer New Media Technologies Inc., Long Beach, Calif.; Ricoh Corp., Yokohama, Japan; Samsung Electronics Co., Suwon, Korea; Sony Electronics Inc., San Jose, Calif.; and TEAC Corp., Montebello, Calif.
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