Plextor exits CD DVD markets

[PlextorLogo]Shinanokenshi (the parent company of Plextor) has decided to exit the market for consumer CD and DVD products. The Plextor brand name will remain for industry use products and digital playback units for the visually impaired. Shinanokenshi has announced that their optical drive operations will be reduced to 10% of its peak capacity. These actions will also lead to reduced workforce at Shinanokenshi. Shinanokenshi cites increased competition from Taiwanese and Korean manufacturers, increased pricing competition and slumping profit margins as reasons for exiting the ODD (Optical Disk Drive) business.

Plextor entered the CD drive market in 1990 and has produced some of the top optical disk drives over the years. Their slogan “King of Quality” illustrated their goals for producing superior quality ODD products. Plextor drives and software have introduced innovative features and groundbreaking tools to the market over the years. Their custom software suite PlexTools introduced consumers to many new tools and utilities that were highly utilized by optical drive enthusiasts. The source article can be found at shimai.co.jp in Japanese.

A large computer chain in Japan also recently reported that Plextor has informed them that there will be no more shipments of the PX-755A or the PX-760A DVD burners. The drives should still be available in some retail stores, but once they sell out, they’re gone. Any Plextor fans out there that may want another drive should probably buy one right now, while they are still available from retail outlets.

Ian from CDRLabs.com also states, “we have not heard anything from Plextor’s American or European subsidiaries yet. It’s possible that they may remain in the optical drive business by rebadging drives or focusing on Blu-ray but at this point, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Update: After this news was published, their have been new developments and official press releases issued that indicate that Plextor will continue to sell optical disk drives. It looks like shinmai.co.jp jumped the gun when they announced that Plextor was “exiting” the consumer markets. The Plextor optical drive sales business will continue, but they will most likely be rebranding or rebadging drives that have been manufactured by other companies. Shinanokenshi has indicated that their engineers will focus on developing other products, which suggests that we might not see any more “Plextor original” optical disk drives, but only time will tell for sure.

About Wes Novack

Wesley Novack is a Technologist working in the software industry, with extensive experience building and managing highly available applications, services, and systems in the public cloud. He has a breadth of experience in online publishing, the consumer electronics industry, and building internet communities. Wes enjoys hanging with his family, skateboarding, hiking, the vegan lifestyle, and a good cup of tea. You can find him on Twitter @WesleyTech.

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16 Comments on “Plextor exits CD DVD markets”

  1. Oh~ This news really shocks me a lot!

    I am a Plextor fan and have used its dirvers in SCSI and IDE interfaces from 2000. Plextor drivers are excellent in quality, compatibility, and support to any kind of discs. But I never think the day that Plextor exits because of costdown comes soonly. This impact makes me to collect more Plextor.

    Say Goodbye to you, my dear Plextor.

    🙁

  2. A sad day for Plextor fan(atics) indeed. 😉

    I was never a big Plextor fan personally, but I do commend them on their innovations and their contributions towards the progression of optical storage technology. It is sad to see such an innovator exit the ODD field.

  3. I am so sorry to see Plextor byte the dust like many other quality computer products over the last 25 years witnessed by myself. I have a few 760as (still run and burn DVD’s not coasters) 716AL as well as a few earlier units. Thats a brag not a complaint. I was really looking forward to a BlueRay when they became affordable. I even purchased an LG BlueRay burner HD reader as a stop gap waiting… Tonight I googled for info to see if they are now affordable and to read this. I am bummed. I also cannot believe it took so long for the news to reach me. But I have quality systems and have not needed to do any upgrading of DVD burners. Chassis and Motherboards are SuperMicro. If I want faster system I remove the mother, cpu, ram and graphic sell it on and purchase current high quality kit. Of course the drives and DVD (Plextors) stay with the chassis and don’t need updating. Burning DVD’s? I have 5 Chest that store 360 DVD’s 18 high quality DVD/CD zipped books. These books are on the book case when cases are full and move the older items to a new storage chest. Now what am I going to recommend to new users for DVD burners? I am truely bummed out, but happy for the moment that I have what I need except for a Plextor BlueRay burner. I just notice over the last few years that Plextor media has dried up and then could not find any burners. Last burner I purchased was at Frys in Concord Ca when visiting my birth place as I have live in England the last 26 years. Bummer….

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