Our spies have returned from Taiwan and have delivered Lite-On's latest product roadmap. While we cannot post the files our spies acquired, we can give you an idea of what to expect for the rest of 2008 and most of 2009.

Blu-ray fans will be happy to know that Lite-On has a number of new Blu-ray Disc drives in the works. Hot on the heels of the iHES206 is an 8x BD Combo drive, the DH-8E2S/L (iHES208). The company is also looking at releasing a new BD-ROM drive (DH-403S) during the first half of 2009 as well as a 10x BD Combo drive (DH-10E3S/L) later in the year. Lite-On is also looking to tackle the notebook market by offering their own line of slim BD Combo drives which includes both tray (DS-4E1S) and slot loading (DL-4ETS) models.

Lite-On's Blu-ray Disc writers will also be getting a much needed speed boost. The company currently plans to introduce an 8x Blu-ray Disc writer (DH-8B2S/L) some time in 2009 with a 12x writer (DH-12B2S/L) scheduled for the end of the year. Lite-On will also be introducing its first slim Blu-ray Disc writer (DS-6B1S/L) during the second half of 2009.

While Blu-ray has definitely become the focus at Lite-On, they haven't abandoned the DVD quite yet.  The company plans to release a new 22x DVD writer (DH-22A9P) at the end of this year and is currently looking to introduce its first 24x DVD writer during the first half of 2009. According to our sources, the DH-24AAS will be based on the Mediatek MT1879 chipset and have features similar to Lite-On's current 22x DVD writers. If the DH-24AAS is a success, Lite-On could release a second 24x DVD writer (DH-24AMS) during the second half of 2009. Also keep an eye out for Lite-On's first 18x DVD-ROM drive (DH-18D5S) during the first half of 2009.

Lite-On's line of slim DVD writers will be getting an update as well. The company will be releasing new tray (DS-8A3S/L) and slot loading (DL-8ATS/L) models at the end of this year, with its first 9.5mm drive (DU-8A3S) coming in mid-2009. The entire line will get revamped again during the second half of 2009 with new tray (DS-8A4S/L) and slot loading (DC-8A2S/L) 12.7mm models as well as a slot loading 9.5mm drive (DO-8A1S).  A number of these drives have already been tagged by Plextor for released under their brand.

Please keep in mind that these plans could change at any time. As we've seen in the past, development days and market changes can push back a drive for months or cause it to be dropped from a company's product lineup altogether.  

Plextor Europe sent out a press release this morning, announcing its first external Blu-ray drive. Along with support for both FireWire and USB 2.0, the PX-B920UF features 4x BD-R, 4x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and is capable of playing back both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies.  The drive will be available through European retailers at the end of this month.

Leading optical drive manufacturer and storage expert Plextor announces its first external ReWriter drive for burning high capacity Blu-ray discs – the PX-B920UF. Offering up to 50GB storage capacity (double layer), the dual-format drive is capable of writing Blu-ray discs at 4x (BD-R) and also plays HD-DVD ROM discs.

This fast drive is ideal for users serious about their storage and movies - and with both USB2.0 and FireWire connectivity, it’s compatible with Mac and PC systems. In addition, Plextor has added extra convenience by including LightScribe technology to enable custom text and designs to be printed/burned onto discs.

Developed from the company’s existing internal range of Blu-ray drives, the technology is experiencing serious demand from high-end users.  Rudy de Meirsman, Sales & Marketing Manager of Plextor Europe, explains: “Blu-ray drives are really taking off as HD movies become popular, availability increases and prices come down. Consumers still want high end, high reliability premium drives as part of their PC/audiovisual setup, despite the economic slowdown.”

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Netflix announced today that it has partnered with Samsung to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV shows from Netflix via Samsung's new BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray disc players. The two companies are also working together to integrate instant streaming into a range of home entertainment products.

Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, and Samsung Electronics America, a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, today announced a broad partnership to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from the Netflix Web site directly to their living rooms via Samsung's BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray disc players. The companies also said they are collaborating to enable Samsung to integrate instant streaming from Netflix into a range of home entertainment products.

The BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 are currently available at $399.99. Consumers who already own one of these Samsung players can upgrade their device at no additional cost to enable instant streaming from a growing library of more than 12,000 movies and television episodes from Netflix. The upgrade is available at http://www.samsung.com/bluraysupport.

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Intel has begun to ship its new enterprise-class solid-state drives (SSDs). The Intel X-25E Extreme SATA Solid-State Drive features 50nm single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory and is capable of 250MB/s read and 170MB/s write speeds. The 32GB capacity drive is in production and is priced at $695. A 64GB version is expected to go into production in the first quarter of 2009.

Intel Corporation has begun shipping its highest-performing solid-state drive (SSD), the Intel® X-25E Extreme SATA Solid-State Drive, aimed at server, workstation and storage systems. Unlike mechanical drives, the SSDs contain no moving parts and instead feature 50nm single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory technology. Systems equipped with these drives will not suffer from the performance bottlenecks associated with conventional drives. By reducing the total infrastructure, cooling and energy costs, SSDs can lower total cost of ownership for enterprise applications by more than five times.

“Hard disk drive performance has not kept pace with Moore’s Law,” said Kirk Skaugen, general manager, Intel Server Platforms group. “Intel’s high-performance SSDs unleash the full performance of the latest Intel Xeon processor-based systems while increasing reliability and lowering the total cost of ownership for a broad range of server and storage workloads.”

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