Quanta Storage, the largest slim-type optical storage maker in Taiwan, expects to ship over one million slim-type combo drives in the second quarter, up from 900,000 units in the first quarter, according to the company president CC Chien. The current contract manufacturing prices for Quanta Storage’s slim-type combo drives are between US$75 and US$80, down from about US$80 in the first quarter, Chien said.

With slim-type combo drives still the major product for the company in the second quarter, Quanta Storage expects to launch a number of new products in the second half of this year to diversify its product lines. New products to be launched later this year include slim-type and half-height DVD+RW drives and slim-type, slot-in DVD-ROMs, Chien said.

The company has completed the pilot run of the slim-type, slot-in DVD-ROM production, and expects to start volume production in September. The DVD-ROM is using pick-up heads (PUHs) provided by Kyushu Matsushita Electric and Quanta Storage has received orders for the product from Apple Computer, Chien said.

The global market for DVD+RW drives this year is estimated at 12 million units, about 5% of the total optical storage drive market worldwide, said Chien. Taiwanese manufacturers are expected to account for less than 20% of global DVD+RW drive shipments in 2003, while Japan is expected to remain the biggest player in the market, he added.