Sony Optiarc Exec Discusses Blu-ray Challenges and Outlook

During the Computex fair in Taiwan, Sony Optiarc's European marketing director Ralf Wolf had a short interview with Tom's Hardware about the current state of the ODD business as well as upcoming Blu-ray developments. In the opinion of Sony Optiarc, Blu-ray is a mature technology now and the prospects are good, especially for the second half of the year.

As regards technology, Blu-ray "is not a big deal anymore", Wolf said, although he admitted there would be "speed bumps like we it was the case with DVD technology a few years ago".

Wolf defended the viability of BD as a storage product, even facing competition by external hard drives. "Blu-ray is already well established in professional markets," said Wolf, "and it is a matter of time until BD products will finally reach low mainstream price points. We believe that there will be a coexistence of both technologies for many years to come".

On the issue of the cost of recordable media, Wolf is confident: "Verbatim was the first to introduce LTH [low-to-high] BD recordables, which represent a significant step to reduce cost for recordable media." With LTH production, media manufacturers can actually recycle most of their tools they've been using for DVD recordables, which, Sony Optiarc hopes, could finally bring down cost. "Cost could certainly have come down much earlier, but the crisis turned the market upside down."

The crisis hit the optical disc drive business very early and very hard, as a large amount of drive orders was cancelled in late 2008. Now the momentum has returned, but demand comes and goes in unpredictable waves.

Sony Optiarc is confident to see a stronger second half of 2009, also because of the expected increase in notebooks with Blu-ray burners. Initially, BD recorders will add at least $150 to a notebook's retail price, but since BD recorders are one of the few differentiation features for notebook vendors, a quick adoption in the upper mainstream and high end segments is expected.