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  • Taiwan Firms to Make More Slim-Type Electronic Products
  • 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.
    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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    Updated: Wed Feb 24 14:51:23 1999 PDT