(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Taiwan Firms to Make More Slim-Type Electronic Products
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February 25, 1999 (TAIPEI) -- Due to the intense competition in the market
for so-called half-height CD-ROMs, profits associated with those products
have fallen and Taiwan's CD-ROM makers are seeking new slim-product
sectors promising greater profits.
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The next batch of high-volume products is expected to include DVD-ROMs,
CD-RWs and slim-type CD-ROMs for notebook computers, industry sources
said.
Among local CD-ROM makers, Lite-On Technology Corp. has experience in
manufacturing slim-type products. Several other companies, including
Pan International Industrial Corp., are now developing similar products.
Global demand for notebook computers totaled 15.42 million units in 1998,
according to statistics from the Market Intelligence Center of Taiwan's
Institute for Information Industry.
In the same year, 13.88 million slim-type CD-ROM were sold, which means
that 90 percent of notebook computers were equipped with slim-type CD-ROMs.
About 17 million notebook PCs are expected to be sold this year, providing
great room for development in the slim-type CD-ROM market.
Lite-On Technology makes slim-type CD-ROMs, after having initially purchased
components for assembly. More recently, Lite-On set up a CD-ROM subsidiary
that is scheduled to begin mass production of 14x slim-type CD-ROMs
by the end of March, with an estimated annual output of at least 1 million
units.
Pan International started small-volume deliveries of slim-type CD-ROMs
in November. Also, the company is cooperating with a subsidiary of Taiwan
Sony, in the development of 24x models.
AOpen Inc., an affiliate of Acer Inc., has finished designing a 24x model,
the company said.
Additionally, an optoelectronics company affiliated with notebook computer
maker Quanta Computer Inc. is preparing to enter the slim-type CD-ROM
market in the third quarter of this year.
(Commercial Times, Taiwan)
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