Lite On Scheduled to Deliver HD DVD Players for XBox 360

Lite-On IT Corp. is reported to begin shipping Microsoft stand-alone high-density digital versatile disc (HD DVD) players for Xbox360 game consoles in the first quarter of 2007, Lite-On’s another big windfall after landing orders to supply DVD-ROM players for Xbox360s.

Taiwan’s industry watchers expected the latest order to considerably help boost Lite-On’s revenue for next year.

The report came shortly after Lite-On openly supported HD DVD camp spearheaded by Toshiba. Microsoft has until now contracted Toshiba to make the game machine’s stand-alone HD DVD players. But industry insiders pointed out that Toshiba has intensively solicited support from Lite-On for its HD DVD format in hopes of combing its specialization in slim optical-disc players with Lite-On’s profession in half-height DVD players to speed up prevalence of HD DVD format.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) plans to roll out HD DVD players in September and has chosen Toshiba to make the machines for it. Toshiba will likely delegate the orders to Lite-On to pare down production costs.

However, Lite-On declined to offer comments on whether or not Microsoft and HP would place orders with the firm. Institutional investors pointed out that Lite-On has been so far the only Taiwanese supplier of optical-disc players to side with HD DVD camp. They projected the company’s revenue for this quarter at NT$14 billion (US$437.5 million at US$1:NT$32), up 27 percent from a quarter earlier, and its revenue for next quarter to soar to NT$17.6 billion (US$550 million). The company estimated its revenue for August at NT$4 billion (US$125 million), increasing 10 percent from July’s NT$3.6 billion (US$113 million). The company had after-tax net income of NT$1.46 per share throughout the first half this year.

Lite On IT received more good news from M$ about delivering HD DVD Players to the company for their gaming system Xbox 360.

This site says that the HD DVD drives will only be used for movie playback and not game playback. And this site says that it will retail for about $200.

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