DVD-R To Become Extinct?

According to a report from the Computex exhibition in Taipei the majority opinion is that the DVD-R format looks likely to lose the big format war in the next year or so. The logic behind this claim is that of the major drive manufacturers only Pioneer appears commited to DVD-R and even they are now hedging their bets with dual format products.

The claim is made in the German website PCWelt.de, which has posted a report from Computex with interesting information about coming DVD writers. Here are some of the other claims in the article:

* The DVD+R/RW format is likely to become the dominating format in 2004 according to most drive and media manufacturers.
* Lite-On will introduce an 8x DVD writer, the LDW-811S, in late October. A 12x model could follow as early as in the end of Q1 2004.
* AOpen will introduce a 12x DVD+R/RW writer in the beginning of 2004.
* 16x writers could appear in 2004 and will be the max speed for DVD burners.
* CMC, Ritek and an unamed Japanese manufacturer will start mass production of 8x DVD+R media in mid October.
* Sony has developed a dual layer DVD+R blank but it will likely never reach production stage because the drives needed to burn it will be too expensive.

Story source (translated through babelfish): pcwelt.de