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The adoption of Blu-ray Disc (BD) and/or HD DVD blue-laser optical disc drives (ODDs) in desktop and notebook PCs will increase from less than 1% of all PCs in 2007 to 10% in 2008, reckons Masayuki Kozuka, general manager for the Storage Device Business Strategy Office of Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), reports Digitimes.com.

In the case of BD burners, OEM price levels have dropped from $1000 in 2006 to $800 in 2007 and may fall further to $500 in 2008, mainly because of increasing yields and production capacity of BD pick-up heads and chipsets, Kozuka comments. This has increased the willingness of international PC vendors, including Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell, Acer and Asustek Computer, to adopt blue-laser burners or drives.

Japan is the market promoting blue-laser consumer electronics the most, Kozuka notes. BD or HD DVD players as a percentage of all disc players/recorders sold in Japan has risen from 14.8% in 2006 to 20% in 2007 and is expected to grow to 50% in 2008.

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Visit: www.digitimes.com/systems/a20071121PD211.html