"The big news with 8X is being able to burn a full disc in about 10 minutes. So we've cut the time in half."
Product manager Bob DeMoulin. The new internal drive will ship before the end of year and sells for 270 dollars... an external version will go for 350 dollars. Sony... and other manufacturers... are making drives that work with the competing plus and minus DVD formats. For now, at least, the division in the industry shows no sign of going away...
"At this point, we see dual format being the market for quite a while. It's actually good for the consumer in that they don't have to worry about when they go to the store which media they buy necessarily. They can buy whatever is available and on sale. Not all media types are merchandised at all stores, so it gives them flexibility to use whatever media is the least expensive."
How fast is the DVD burner market growing? In 2001, under a million units were sold. Last year... it was around five million. This year..IDC forecasts a nearly four fold increase to 19 million. Sony faces plenty of competition from Iomega, TDK, Memorex and others. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.