In brief: Ricoh and Fujitsu first to market with CD-RW drives

Ricoh is the first vendor to deliver CD-Rewritable drives to market, showing them off at Cebit. Hot on its heels came an announcement from Fujitsu ICL that it would include CD-RW drives in its forthcoming range of Ergo Pro PCs, which will ship this quarter. Fujitsu will introduce the technology to all its business models this year.

However, analysts believe success for CD-RW depends on its rival technology, rewritable Digital Video Disc, being delayed beyond early next year, the deadline set by more ambitious suppliers. If OEMs and users believe the more advanced rewritable DVD will be available within a year, they will be less attracted to CD-RW. The first read-only DVDs shipped late last year.