14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that a certain market segment is losing share in the wake of more and more mobile storage, it being that of optical disk drives, to the point where companies that deal in such things ended up with lower revenues last month.
Some years ago, optical disks had become the major means of transferring data between computers and for storing files outside the PC indefinitely.
The CD (compact disk) was the first major step away form floppy disks, and the DVD really put a distance between the past and the present.
Then, even the DVD was completely overshadowed by the Blu-ray disk, which also started to seriously be used for games on PS3 consoles.
In the meantime, however, other sorts of external and portable storage solutions were created, especially after the development of NAND Flash memory.
The USB flash drive started to win consumers over as soon as it reached stores and, with newer and better sticks coming out ever since, the segment flourished substantially.
Also, hard disk drives began to take on portable forms as well when the 2.5-inch form factor started to be used more commonly.
Coupled with the growing market share of solid state drives, it is safe to say that ODDs are selling less and less.
In fact, a recent Digitmes report actually states that ODD maker Lite-On IT accumulated consolidated revenues of NT$4.14 billion in February, 2011.
The sum is the equivalent of US$140 million and implies an on month decrease of 17.13%, as well as an on-year drop of 7.38%.
This left the January-February figure at 1.61% less than the same months of last year, to NT$9.14 billion. The company won't be out of the IT industry any time soon, however, as it will start making SSDs for Plextor (Japan-based company) and should start shipments before the ongoing Q1 of 2011 is out.