LG GSA-4040B available for pre-order for US$243

[Kennyshin]

According to jsl at this thread: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php ... post429828

LG GSA-4040B is available for pre-order in Sweden for US$243.

[Ian]

Not a bad price.Especially for a retail drive.

Hopefully it will be about the same in the US.

[tazdevl]

LOL bah... just when I was going to order a 510A. Well seems like the wait will be a bit longer.

[Kennyshin]

Since LG publicly announced there would be 500,000 new GMA/GSA-4040B each month beginning this month, I feel the shift to CD-R/DVD-ROM combo and DVD recordables has just started in the mass market. LG plans to produce 10 to 20 million combo drives this year and as many DVD writers in 2004. The LG Group's taipan himself has been aggressive in dominating the worldwide optical storage market. The biggest and nearest competitor is Samsung. If anyone's reading these days' news on South Korea, the big issue is whether SK and Hyundai are going to evaporate like Daewoo and other groups have in the recent years. It's a matter of corporate pride and face. Whatever success Sony had with DRU-500A, it will lose most of the profitable big markets to some South Korean and Chinese competitors unless it repeats success with PSX, Blu-ray, LCD HD, and so on. Pioneer plans to increase monthly DVD writer production capacity to well more than 500K. Both LG and Pioneer mass produce in the middle of mainland China.

LG and Samsung expect average new DVD writer prices to fall under US$100 in several months, possibly by the end of this year. NEC ND-1300A costs US$150 OEM and US$200 retail so it's no wonder LG's selling its newest write-to-all DVD writer for US$243 in Europe. In Japan where price competition for the new DVD writers is strongest, GSA-4040B will fall under US$200 in a few weeks. By May, Buffalo DVM-4242FB retail box (DRU-500AX OEM) price dropped to US$180 in Tokyo. It will fall further after the mass release of GMA-4040B and DVR-A06.

[MikeTR]

LG and Samsung expect average new DVD writer prices to fall under US$100 in several months, possibly by the end of this year.

COOL! (hope it's not a typo)

In Japan where price competition for the new DVD writers is strongest, GSA-4040B will fall under US$200 in a few weeks. By May, Buffalo DVM-4242FB retail box (DRU-500AX OEM) price dropped to US$180 in Tokyo. It will fall further after the mass release of GMA-4040B and DVR-A06.

Kennyshin, do you have some sort of 'pricewatch' link for the Japanese market? I'd like to get an insight in what the prices and the available models are in Japan for when I get over there. Might want to pick up a -4040. By the way, am I correct in assuming the only difference between the GMA- and GSA- is the label (LG resp. Hitachi)?

[Kennyshin]

LG and Samsung expect average new DVD writer prices to fall under US$100 in several months, possibly by the end of this year.

COOL! (hope it's not a typo)

In Japan where price competition for the new DVD writers is strongest, GSA-4040B will fall under US$200 in a few weeks. By May, Buffalo DVM-4242FB retail box (DRU-500AX OEM) price dropped to US$180 in Tokyo. It will fall further after the mass release of GMA-4040B and DVR-A06.

Kennyshin, do you have some sort of 'pricewatch' link for the Japanese market? I'd like to get an insight in what the prices and the available models are in Japan for when I get over there. Might want to pick up a -4040. By the way, am I correct in assuming the only difference between the GMA- and GSA- is the label (LG resp. Hitachi)?

No, it's not a typo. I seriously meant it.

There are also price information sites in Japan like Kakaku but even I am not used to those Japanese-language pages. I just browse http://www.impress.co.jp as often as I can. Click the Akiba section and there are weekly updated information on new products and lowest/highest/average prices on the Akihabara streets. There are very many ways to get products at much lower prices if you know where to look at just like some people at CDRLabs know how to make the most use out of BestBuy, Walmart, NewEgg, CircuitCity, etc. What I am trying to do with the new site I'm making is integrating the east Asian markets for computer components. First of all, I need to have a permanent office in the expensive Akihabara.

GMA-4040B is the retail version and GSA-4040B is the OEM version, I heard, but I'm not sure if I correctly understood about it.