Erica Yen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai

 

Optical disc drive (ODD) shipments are facing a great uncertainty in the future as Intel is aggressive pushing its new ultrabook design, which will not require the adoption of an ODD for the purposes of saving space and cost, according to sources from ODD players.

Taiwan-based ODD player Lite-On IT pointed out that its shipments are unlikely to see 20-30% sequential growth in the third quarter of 2011, but benefiting by the smooth shipments of its gaming ODD and slim-type ODD, the company's ODD shipments in the quarter is still expected to see growth compared to the first and the second quarter.

Facing an impact from ultrabooks, Lite-On is already in planning for the related solutions, but the company cannot reveal any detail as the company is still in discussion with its clients.

Commenting about the ODD industry, Digitimes Research pointed out that the slim-type ODD has already become the major shipment segment for each ODD maker, while half-height ODDs, facing an already saturated desktop PC market, is unlikely to have further growth and is actually seeing dropping shipments each quarter. And the ODD may still face the same fate as the floppy disk drive.

Digitimes Research also believes Blu-ray disc drives will also lose their attractiveness as streaming media, as well as external hard drives, will gradually replace traditional drives. Commenting on the forecast, ODD players pointed out that although Blu-ray disc drives have not shown the surging growth originally expected, shipments are still growing stably every quarter.