Apparently , Yamaha will stop producing CDRW drive !
Anyone knows if its true ?
Read the article if you know German:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/tol-27.01.03-002/

Bag

Google translation:

"Yamaha places CD burner production a

Yamaha stops the business with CD burners. "we concentrate in the future on Consumer Electronics and music devices", said the speaker of the Yamaha IT range, Matthias Loeffler, opposite heise on-line.

It rejected speculations over a possible locking of the location Rellingen with Hamburg with its over 200 coworkers however. "the IT division for optical drive assemblies closed, concerned are 9 coworkers", got straight it. The CD burners of Yamaha are considered as qualitatively high-quality. They had it according to opinion of market watchers in letzer time however heavily, against the oversupply from cheap offers to maintain ground (tol/c't)"

(in reply to Bagbug)

Australian discount IT retailers dropped their Yamaha CRW-F1 price from AU$330 to AU$169 in December, with warnings of limited stocks left as a result of a "Yamaha prive reduction". Is this a result of production ceasing or just tough competition, or both? Don't know.

(in reply to Bagbug)

This is horrible news! and truly a sad day for CD Burning people everywhere!

(in reply to Bagbug)

I have been studying for my exams the past month. In the beginning of the month I decided, that I wanted to buy myself an end-of-exam-gift: a new CDRW-drive. I have always like Plextor, but I read a lot of reviews and found out that Yamaha CRW-F1 probably was the best drive at the price.

Today I call a local retailer and he tells me that the drive is out-of-stock and Yamaha has stopped producing optical storage drives. [xx(]

I can probably find a retailer who still has it, but I am not keen on bye something that is out of production. I don’t think Yamaha is going to make any new Firmware upgrades!

Is it still safe to buy a CRW-F1?

(in reply to Bagbug)

This is VERY sad indeed. Now I'm going out tomorrow to buy 3 more of them to keep in the box (after testing) for future use, I love this drive and don't want it to go away.

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Now THAT'S dedication!

It's unfortunate that Yamaha is throwing this support away especially since I was going to pick one up...but now I won't because I too fear a lack of firmware upgrades [xx(]

(in reply to Bagbug)

quote:

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Originally posted by MP3Mogul

This is VERY sad indeed. Now I'm going out tomorrow to buy 3 more of them to keep in the box (after testing) for future use, I love this drive and don't want it to go away.

---

LOL!

However, this rumor cannot be confirmed nor denied by contacts at Yamaha at this point in time. So this may prove incorrect, time will tell.

There will be still a good amount of drives avalible (F1 series) even if this is the case, and I'm sure Yamaha will still provide firmware updates and support.

(in reply to Bagbug)

Well, to see Yamaha leave the CD-RW race doesn't actually surprise me now that I think about it. Yamaha already stated that they wouldn't be making any drives faster then 44x for writing to CD-Rs, so it kinda leaves them in an awkward position if they attempt to compete with other manufacturers. The only thing thay could do is bring out a 44x32x44x drive, which would probably not be very popular since it would be competing with 52x32x52x drives, or possibly faster models.

Perhaps we've reached the end of where CD-R technology will bring us, and we have to look forward to DVD-Rs (and DVD+Rs) for new innovations. Or perhaps Yamaha is pulling out now to prepare for something even more powerful then recordable DVDs? only time will tell.

(in reply to Bagbug)

LOL Yeah Yamaha stopping making Digital Storage the next thing you will all believe is that the Moon is really made of Cheese !!!
This could be true but I doubt it. It is more likely a Rumour started by one of the Companies who are getting hit bad by Yamaha dropping their Prices !!!
MARK YAMAHA
Can you please either confirm or deny this rumour [?][?][?]

(in reply to Bagbug)

I agree L.A.

I also sent mark an email requesting info on this....

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I am sure Mark will either clear this rumour up or confirm it MP3 !!!

(in reply to Bagbug)

A quote from http://cd-rw.org/ for what it's worth -

startquote

Yamaha to stop CD-R production?

A german website Heise-News reports that Yamaha would stop manufacturing CD-R drives. Accordng to the source Yamaha's primary focus would be musical instruments and consumer products. The reason of this decision is the competitive pressure of cheapo manofacturers.

I would have imagined that a news item like this would had attention from bigger websites. On the other hand, our Yamaha contact told us earlier that Yamaha is about to relase a DVD writer.

endquote

(in reply to Bagbug)

Yep I also know Yamaha are going to release a DVD Writer so that just makes all the rumours a load of BULLS**T and it has more than likely been started by one of the other Manufacturers as I have already said but we will know more when MARK (Yamaha Manager) reads our post and replies !!!

(in reply to Bagbug)

Well, I think it is entirely possible that Yamaha is pulling out of the CD-Writer race, and going full throttle into the DVD Writer race. I mean, come on, there isn't much room left to improve anyways!

(in reply to Bagbug)

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php3?ID=5592

(in reply to Bagbug)