Asustek Computer on June 28 announced in China that it will launch a Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo drive, BC-1205PT, in the third quarter of 2007, according to industry sources in Taiwan. This is Asustek"s first BD optical disc drive, the sources indicated.
The popularity of BD burners is still very low because of their high pricing. Blank BD-R, BD-RE (rewritable) optical discs, mostly produced by Japanese makers, at NT$700-800 (US$21.4-24.4) are priced much higher than the NT$8-10 for DVD+R or DVD-R discs and a BD burner sells at around US$1,000, the sources pointed out. A BD Combo drive, which has BD read-only support and a relatively low price level below US$300, is the best product to promote the BD standard, the sources noted.