Monday, August 27th 2012
Sony Leaving PC Optical Drive Business
Sony is reportedly shutting down Optiarc Inc., its subsidiary which deals with PC optical drives. The move could mark the company's exit from PC optical drive business, including its PC Blu-ray drive business. It is reported that officials at Sony find "fierce competition" responsible for lower than viable pricing, forcing the business to operate at a loss. Sony plans to wind up Optiarc by March 2013, and give some of its 400 employees early retirement, while transferring some to other divisions of Sony.
Source:
Engadget
40 Comments on Sony Leaving PC Optical Drive Business
I got a Samsung USB DVD Writer for my CD/DVD needs, which happens once a year.
There are still quite a few players in the optical drive market but I dont think sony leaving will make their situations that much different apart from the possible 0.01 to 0.03% increase in optical drive sales.
apart from having a blueray player connected upto your tv at home...Nobody really cares for optical much anymore
Though in the past year and a half, with optical drive prices tanking, they all put out the same level of generic crap.
bought an optiarc drive and it died in 2 weeks. bravo SONY
never had problems with LG or ASUS
Shit, I can't even remember for how many years. I have a USB slimline DVD but I haven't also used it for years. No PC I've built in recent years has an optical drive anyhow.
Off to pioneer i go i guess.
On a personal note, two things:
1) I still buy music (craziness!) on CD (double craziness!) I refuse to pay for inferior compressed formats. I rip to lossless FLAC for home use and convert to mp3 for portable. Naturally this requires an optical drive, so I really hope someone keeps making them.
2) Japanese companies respect toward employees: They offered early retirement or a move elsewhere within the company. In the US, it would have been 'You're fired!'
as far as respect for employee's go, you obviously havent heard of how foxconn and apple treat their factory staff.
I can assure you there are still a lot of people using Optical drives.
Watching Movies, playing bought music.. yes some people actually buy CD's instead of downloading it, making DVD backups of important files, installing games, yes some people actually go to a shop and buy games instead of downloading it.
Sony leaving the optical drive market means.. oh well.. no more sony optical drives..