Apple Drives DVD Burning Market

Apple

The Cupertino-based computer maker now offers the SuperDrive, made by Pioneer Electronics, in its Power Mac G4 and iMac G4 desktops. Pioneer accounted for about 60 percent of the 628,000 DVD drives--including DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW units--shipped in 2001, said Mary Craig, optical storage analyst at research firm Gartner Dataquest.

Among personal computer makers, Apple has been the key driver of DVD recording technology so far, Craig said. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has trumpeted DVD burning as a linchpin of Apple's "digital lifestyle" marketing strategy, in which the company's desktop and notebook computers, Mac OS X operating system, iPod portable MP3 player and bundle of multimedia software (including iTunes, iDVD, iMovie and iPhoto) serve as the "digital hub."

By the end of this year, Gartner Dataquest projects DVD drive shipments to double, to roughly 1.2 million, and by 2003 to nearly triple, to 3.5 million, according to Craig. DVD burners, however, remain a fledgling technology that has yet to reach critical mass, she noted.

"These things aren't flying off the shelves. It's still an early adopter market," Craig said. "But it's a good technology for video applications and other things that many Apple users tend to do."

Pioneer also makes DVD-R/RW drives for Compaq Computer, Sony and Packard Bell NEC in Europe, Craig said. Panasonic, Toshiba and Hitachi LG manufacture DVD-RAM drives, and Korea-based Ricoh/Funai makes DVD+R/RW drives for Hewlett-Packard, which along with Dell Computer stand as the major resellers behind that format, she said.

Industry observers expect the nascent DVD+R/RW technology to eventually become the dominant DVD burning format because it offers superior data handling to DVD-R/RW, whose primary use has centered on DVD authoring rather than data storage. Craig, in fact, said she doesn't expect the overall DVD burning market to take off "until there's a really good feeling that there's broad compatibility for the DVD+R/RW format."

Apple, meanwhile, has made several other moves on the digital media front, notably in professional digital video. This week, Apple and Panasonic announced at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas that they're collaborating on two pro video initiatives. Plans call for Apple's FireWire high-speed input/output technology to be added to Panasonic's DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO HD tape decks and for Panasonic's new AG-DVX100 24P mini-DV camcorder to be supported in a future version of Final Cut Pro, Apple's pro non-linear video/film editing software.

And last week, Apple began shipping DVD Studio Pro 1.5 for Mac OS X, an upgrade of its DVD authoring software, and unveiled plans to release Cinema Tools for Final Cut Pro, a new software package, in May. DVD Studio Pro 1.5 for Mac OS X and Cinema Tools for Final Cut Pro, which adds film and high-definition (HD) video editing capabilities to Final Cut Pro, both carry a retail list price of $999. Also last week, Apple acquired Scotts Valley, Calif.-based Zayante, whose IEEE 1394 silicon and software is used in FireWire-equipped consumer electronics and computing products.