Based on Dataquest research, the unofficial shipments largely include imported units from countries like Taiwan, Thailand, China and others. The heavy tilt in favor of the unorganized market may be attributed to the nature and usability of the product (USB/thumb drives), informal channels structure, and evolving user needs. According to DQ estimates the total market size for flash drives in India stood at Rs 225 crore. The total volume of flash drives touched the figure of 300,000 unit. The market share was divided among various players and no one emerged as a clear winner. However, the players who had significant tractions were SanDisk, Kingston, and Transcend. Moser Baer also ventured in this market anticipating the high growth. 2 Gb storage became the new benchmark, though smaller and cheaper sizes remained popular.

Optical Disk Drives (ODDs)
The year was a very promising one for the ODDs market. During the year, it witnessed resurgence despite the fact that other storage media were constantly gaining more market and popularity. The growth in USB drives usage did not have too much of an impact on the ODD market, as the consumer segment lapped up ODDs because of ease of use and convenience.

The total market size for the CD-Rs stood at Rs 264 crore, riding on a volume of 22 crore units. Moser Baer remained dominant in this market with 40% share and an earning of around Rs 106 crore. Other players like Sony, LG, Intex, NCP also performed well. An improved pricing cycle for CD-Rs, robust growth in DVD-R and a subdued PC cost environment were key enablers for growth.

This year also saw huge rise in the DVD market, which was a lesser-used media uptill now. Due to a constant reduction in price, the DVD market gained momentum total revenue amounted to Rs 170 crore, with 5 crore units sold during the year. In the DVD market also, Moser Baer was the undisputed leader with total earning of Rs 68 crore. Few other prominent players in this segment were Sony and LG.

With the world moving toward high definition, the year also saw the arrival of revolutionary Blu-ray Disks based on the Blu-ray technology. Blu-ray discs offer a storage capacity of
25 Gb, close to five times the resolution of conventional DVDs. Moser Baer and Sony were the first ones to launch this in the market. The demand for the next generation high-density formats, including HD-DVD and Blu-ray media, is expected to grow sharply in the years to follow.

Kumar Anshuman
anshumank@cybermedia.co.in

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