Lite-On IT shipped 21 million optical drives in the first half of this year and the company is confident it will attain its shipment goal of 45 million drives for the year.

Lite-On IT expects its revenues for this quarter to grow 20-25% sequentially, Liao indicated. However, gross margins will drop from 22.3% last quarter to 18-20% this quarter, as competition has pushed down OEM prices, Liao added.

The company’s product breakdown for its first half shipments was 20 million half-height (H/H) drives and one million slim-type drives, according to Liao.

Slim-type DVD burners and DVD recorders with built-in hard disks (HDD+DVD recorders) have a large market potential, Lite-On IT’s optical disc drive business general manager Michael Gong pointed out. Currently, Lite-On IT’s OEM quotation for slim-type DVD burners is US$40-50 higher than for its slim-type Combo drives and the company ships twice as many Combo drives, Gong indicated. With the price difference narrowing, Gong predicts that the company will ship more slim-type DVD burners by the first quarter of next year.

Lite-On IT has begun producing HDD+DVD recorders, with OEM prices at US$250 for 80GB capacity and US$330 for 160GB. The company will target sales of the product in the US, Europe and Japan markets, and intends to compete with Japanese brands rather than Taiwan and Chinese makers on price.

From DigiTimes