If CD-RW/DVD-ROM optical combo drive makers Quanta Storage and Lite-On IT achieve their shipment targets next year, Taiwan-based Mediatek could capture one-third of the combo drive chipset market.

The Taiwan-based Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA) forecasts 24 million combo drives will be shipped worldwide next year, up from an estimated 12 million this year, 5.5 million in 2001 and 2.3 million in 2000.

Quanta Storage began shipping combo drives last May and targets shipping five million units next year. The company estimated shipping 1.6 million units this year. Lite-On IT began shipping combo drives this month and aims to ship three million units next year. Both companies rely solely on Mediatek for combo drive chipsets.

Mediatek is said to also supply a small quantity of combo drive chipsets to LG Electronics. Other combo drive makers include Japan-based Matsushita (Panasonic), Toshiba, Sharp, Ricoh and Sanyo.

Mediatek said that it expects combo drive chipsets to contribute 5% of its total revenues this year. According to sources, chipsets account for about one-fifth of a combo drive’s quoted price. Combo drives cost about US$60-70 and are retailed at US$70-75, so a chipset should be priced at about US$12-15.

Last May Mediatek launched a highly-integrated combo drive chipset supporting 48x and 24x CD-RW write and 16x DVD-ROM read speeds. United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) manufactures the chipset using 0.25-micron processing.