October 19, 1998, Issue: 223
Section: Opinion/Editorial
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Letters to the Editor
To the Editor: Regarding your story, "Suppliers Rewrite Plan for
Rewritable DVD" (CRW, Oct. 12), let me offer some more information.
LaCie (the company for which I work, and a supplier of external hard
drives, removable storage and CD-R/CD-RW), was an early OEM partner of
Panasonic/Matsushita. We have been selling (and delivering) DVD-RAM
solutions for the Macintosh and PC since July.
While Panasonic has been keeping the bulk of DVD-RAM product for the
Japanese market (where it is selling very well at retail), about 10% of
its factory output capability is trickling out to the United States and
Europe through manufacturers such as LaCie (and Creative, Nakamichi and
others). While we are getting a large allocation of product (to the
exclusion of Hi-Val for now), there is simply not enough to satisfy
demand. We've been able to move a lot of product in North America and in
Europe. We feel that Panasonic is very supportive of the product (as are
Toshiba and Hitachi), but is being very conservative about ramping up
production until they are sure all issues have been addressed, including
DVD-ROM read compatibility, media availability, commitment by desktop
OEMs and price pressure caused by CD-R and CD-RW alternatives.
With Matsushita, Hitachi and Toshiba controlling much of the DVD-ROM
market for desktop PCs, I think we will see a bigger push for DVD-RAM
once compatible DVD-ROM drives ship in volume. Note that Matsushita
completed its chip set this past summer, and is now shipping compatible
DVD-ROM drives to OEMs this fall with DVD-RAM read capability.
LaCie is focusing on business and graphics professionals with the
DVD-RAM product. They are using it primarily as a low-cost, high
capacity, high-reliability backup and archival device. Use as a CD-ROM
or DVD-ROM drive is secondary. DVD-RAM will quickly replace
magneto-optic, Jaz and SyQuest products in these kinds of applications,
due to its better price/
performance, and reliability.
Will DVD-RAM appear in retail anytime soon? Probably not for another six
to nine months.
Mike Mihalik
Vice President, Engineering,
LaCie, Hillsboro, Ore.
Copyright ® 1998 CMP Media Inc. |
