What's happened to LightScribe?
HEXUS: This time last year, Lite-On and HP - for whom you make burners - were making a big splash at CTS over LightScribe. [For those who don't know, this is an HP-patented technology that allows you to burn labels from within the burner directly onto the top surface of a disc] Burn, flip, burn was, as I recall, the catchphrase. I love the idea and I think that everyone else who's had hands on loves it too – even though label-burning speeds at the highest quality are quite slow, and it's still possible only to produce monochrome labels.
But LightScribe doesn't seem to have taken the optical-disc world by storm. I don't think I've ever even seen it installed as standard (or as an optional extra) in any make of PC.
JV: Apart from HP?
HEXUS: Of course! I find it sad that system builders don't even see it as worth offering as a unique selling point – even if it's as an upgrade. We've also had the arrival of a competing system from NEC – a move I completely fail to understand. Has something gone wrong with LightScribe?
JV: LightScribe did get off to a slower-than-expected start because supplies of blank media were limited. Media makers seem to have been reluctant to give up production lines for the uncertain sales of LightScribe and that impacted on the initial availability of media.
Most of the burner makers have adopted LightScribe but PC makers have been slow to buy into LightScribe, though only because, I think, the margins they work on are so very tight that they are reluctant to pay out extra for LightScribe products. But what is a mystery is why – by now - end users still haven't bought into LightScribe big-time when drive manufacturers have. No one knows the answer for sure.
HEXUS: Isn't it pricing and awareness?
JV: Well, it doesn't help that you don't see LightScribe fitted as standard to many PC but, as for pricing, that's no longer a reason because the differential is now only about five or six Euros to consumers – and even less for system builders. The LightScribe version of a basic model that retails for 49 Euro is probably selling for around 55 Euro. The slight extra cost is largely taken up by licensing fees.
As you know, there's also a premium on LightScribe blank media. The differential on discs is perhaps 30 per cent. There is fierce competition over blank disc pricing but what many people don't know, though, is that to carry the LightScribe logo, blank media has to go through a very tough certification procedure by HP, so the extra also buys you a guarantee of quality – and that, as you realise – can be very important.
LightScribe disc - first
generation and, currently, the only generation -
(click for larger image)
HEXUS: What's happened with the promises about second-generation and third-generation media that were made when LightScribe was launched? We were told that we'd soon be seeing discs that could have a label burned to them in considerably less time than the first-generation stock. We were also promised discs in a selection of different colours. And we were told that full-colour LightScribe labels were on the roadmap, too.
JV: There really hasn't been much movement on these developments. There have been increases in label-burning speed but all of them, I think, are because of improvements in the burners and the software, not the media. LightScribe's slow start may be one reason why the label-writing speed of media lags behind the hardware's capabilities. As you can imagine, as a hardware maker, we've been anxiously waiting for new-generation LightScribe media, too, and have been surprised that, for instance, the discs of different colours we were expecting to see in the retail channel long before now still haven't turned up. I keep on being told they're there but I don't see them. Why the discs aren't in store, only the big-name media manufacturers, such as CMC and Ritek, are going to be able to tell you. As for full-colour – that's still in the roadmap, of course, but we still don't know when it will be delivered. HP and the media companies might be able to tell you but I can't.
HEXUS: Jelmer, it's been great but are there any questions I should have asked you but didn't?
JV: I don't think so.
HEXUS: Okay. Thanks for fitting me in ahead of the scheduled slot, and thanks for letting us hear your thoughts - it's been a pleasure as always.
JV: My pleasure, you're most welcome.
