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This is a CD-Recording
By James E. Powell
Just a few months ago, the CD-Recordable (CD-R) was a boutique
item. Now the only question is, might one come standard with your
PC soon?
Last year, Hewlett-Packard declared war on the market with Sure-Store,
breaking the $1,000 price barrier. As interest rose, prices fell-virtually
across the board. For example, Smart and Friendly
cut the price of its 1002/C by 48
percent to less than $900.
And things could get even better. TEAC, which has made 100 million
floppy drives to date, sees the CD-R fray as a natural progression
for its devices. "At $2,000, CD-R as a were great for building
multimedia applications; at $1,000, there's additional momentum,"
said Scott Elrich, product development/marketing manager. "OEMs
are looking at including a CD-R drive in your next new PC."
So what's ahead? Expect CD-R units for less than $500 by next
year, Elrich predicted, and, inevitably, DVD (formerly digital
video disk) rewritable drives not long after that: "That
could be the floppy drive of the future."