LoneWolf wrote:The news you had up today [Ian] makes me think Pioneer might be either ceasing home DVD drive production and outsourcing, or possibly ceasing R&D entirely in that area and looking more at solutions for high-end home theater/audiophile, and commercial-use products. I think NEC, Benq, and in the high-end market, Plextor, have put the squeeze on. And of course there's Sony/Lite-On, whose drives aren't as good, but who you can find cheaply.
Yeah, they just can't compete on the low end. Here are their restructuring plans:
http://www.pioneer.co.jp/press/pdf/Orga ... 51208e.pdfIn the DVD recorder business, prices of low-end products sold in Europe and the U.S. have been sharply falling. Therefore, we have already discontinued developing such low-end products on our own, and are concentrating our development resources on products featuring advanced technologies. In terms of LSIs and software development, we will aggressively promote tie-ups with other companies, introducing products quickly to the market, and push down development costs. Production of low-end DVD recorders and VCR-combo DVD recorders will be shifted to subcontractors, to improve profitability.
As for recordable DVD drives for personal computers (PCs), we will focus on slim drives for notebook PCs to deliver high added value. We are shifting core development to drives for Blu-ray Discs, whose sales are expected to grow dramatically from here onward.
I am a little concerned about their plans for PC drives. Focus on slim drives? What about their desktop drives? I'm guessing they'll drop them in favor of Blu-ray or contract with someone else.
Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:48 am
