Lite-On IT plans to offer external USB slim-type DVD burners in the third quarter of 2008, targeting owners of UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs), Eee PCs and other low-cost portable PCs that do not have built-in DVD burners, according to industry sources. Although hard disk drive (HDD) vendors have carried external HDDs for several years, external DVD burners still have market potential due to the much lower prices of blank optical discs, the sources indicated.