Lite-On Europe has revealed the company's Blu-ray Disc plans. According to their press release, they plan to introduce their first Blu-ray drive, the LH-2B1S, in August 2006.
Lite-On IT, one of the world's biggest optical disc drive manufacturers, is ready for the next generation of optical disc formats. Lite-On IT announces to start producing BD (Blu-ray Disc) compatible drives in Q3 2006 and to introduce Lite-On branded Blu-ray drives to the market in August 2006.

The LH-2B1S will be the first Lite-On drive with Blu-ray Disc technology. Thanks to the use of the blue-violet laser, it enables users to record, rewrite and playback high-definition video (HD) as well as storing large amounts of data. The Blu-ray Disc format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 50GB of data on a double layer BD disc and up to 25GB on a single layer BD disc. Naturally, the drive will also be compatible with DVD±R(W) (DL) media and CD-R(W) media.
Lite-On also points out that the LH-2B1S will also feature a Serial ATA (SATA) interface. More information can be found here.