Lite-on to Stop Manufacturing Drives

This is one piece of news, that seems to have come straight out of the blue. Digitimes has reported that Lite-on, one of the world's leading ODD (optical disc drive) manufacturers, has decided to quit the business. It will cease to sell drives, under its own brand name Lite-On, and will instead concentrate on the OEM part of its business. The reasons being given for this move, are low sales this year, and fairly heavy losses. There have been significant losses, reported also due to drives, that were sold by Wal-Mart and were returned, due to either manufacturing defects or glitches.

Currently under the OEM model, Lite-On manufactures drives for both Benq and Sony. While this operation will ensure that Lite-on drives continue to exist in the market in one form or the other, the loss of the Lite-On brand-name, which has come to signify low-cost mass-market reliability, will be a big loss.