Samsung Electronics and Japan's Toshiba Corp. launched on Friday a joint venture which they hope will take the lion's share of the worldwide optical storage disk drive market. Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of computer memory chips, said it owns a 49 per cent stake in the Suwon, South Korea-based venture, while electronics giant Toshiba holds 51 per cent.

Samsung invested 152.2 billion won (US$134 million) in the venture, which has already begun producing optical data storage products for use in notebook and desktop computers.

"The tie-up with Toshiba helps Samsung Electronics strengthen its competitiveness in the global optical disk drive market," Hwang In-seop, who heads the venture, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, worldwide optical disk drive shipments are expected to reach 230 million units this year, according to Samsung Electronics. The market size is expected to rise to 270 million units in 2006, the company said.