BD-ROM to Get Industry Push

Leading Taiwan-based optical disc drive manufacturers are expected to shift focus from producing Blu-ray drives with read/write capabilities to BD-ROM drives which provide only read capability. The drives, which can be made cheaper, more efficiently, and for less money than their read/write counterparts, are expected to become the main focus of manufacturers such as Pioneer, HP, Acer and Asustek in the second quarter of this year.

Currently, industry insiders are speculating that computer powerhouse companies such as Dell and Apple are expected to introduce low cost BD-ROM drives into their profiles sometime later this year. The shift in focus to BD-ROM drives by OEM manufacturers could hint that these rumors are true.