The market leader in the manufacture of optical disc production lines has upgraded its 2008 forecast for Blu-ray machines by 50% after receiving strong orders in the first three months of the year.
Along with “numerous orders” for Blu-ray lines from Europe and Asia, the company received its first major order for Blu-ray from the US.
Stefan Baustert, CEO of Singulus Technologies, said its order projections had been upped from 20 Blu-ray machines to “about 30 machines” for 2008.
He said a market share of more than 65 % was targeted for the Blu-ray segment.
“This means that the orders for Blu-ray in the first year of the dual layer technology already by far exceeded the volume at the start of the DVD eleven years ago with 17 machines,” he said.
“It is also very promising that recently the first Dual Layer Blu-ray disc machine was accepted by one of our key customers in the US.”
Singulus is the only manufacturer globally to offer the complete range of optical disc production line products: mastering, molding and replication lines.
Speaking at the company’s AGM in Frankfurt am Main, Baustert said orders for 21 Blu-ray dual layer machines were received in the first quarter of 2008 and that additional orders followed in the 2nd quarter.
Singulus’ ability to cope with increased demand had been considerably strengthened by the acquisition earlier this year of the Blu-ray disc activities of Oerlikon Balzers in Switzerland.
Tag: optical-disc
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Signs point towards rising output of Blu-ray Discs as production capacity grows
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"Hard" media discs in no danger of disappearing despite advances being made in digital downloading
Blu-ray discs and DVDs are going to survive for another 20 years even though great advances are being made in digital downloading.
That is the belief of Reed Hastings, head of NetFlix, the online rental service, who also stated that he doesn’t think a rival physical optical disc will emerge to challenge Blu-ray.
Speaking at an investors meeting, Hastings said on DVD and Blu-ray wouldn’t be replaced by digital downloads and ray Hollywood studios would continue releasing films on disc.
“Our view is that the studios are going to publish DVD and Blu-ray for another 20 years,” he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be another physical optical disc.”
Hastings said that the DVD/Blu-ray industry would probably not “peak” for 5-10 years.
However, despite his long-term confidence in discs, the executive said the online rental service is aggressively developing online video streaming services.
“We’ve been looking forward to these years for a long time,” said Hastings.
“Our DVD shipments will probably peak in 5 to 10 years … the streaming can be thought of as defensive, protecting our turf, or offensive,” he added.
In the US this month, NetFlix began selling a $99 set-top that enables subscribers to download movies over the Net directly to their TVs.
The company also offers a streaming service at its web site, which is free to subscribers.
Hastings said that NetFlix ultimately could generate 20 million subscribers to video streaming; the company now projects having 10 million DVD subscribers by the end of 2008.
He also said NetFlix is still examining ways to charge more for Blu-ray rentals, an idea floated by the company earlier this year.