SEC, Creative Technology to Cooperate in Next-generation Optical Memory Devices

- Partners to co-develop 12 multiple-speed CD-ROM drivers, DVD-ROMs. - SEC to sell US$ 300 million worth of the new products a year. - New CD-ROM drivers to hit the world market in the second half of `96. Samsung Electronics Co. (SEC) and Creative Technology Ltd. Concluded a comprehensive agreement to co-develop as well as produce and sell next-generation 12-multiple-speed CD-ROM drivers, CD-ROMs digital video disks (DVDs) and other optical devices. The agreement will be a marriage of SEC's advanced CD-ROM driver and DVDtechnology with Creative Technology's world-class computer sound technology.The result will be the rapid development of highly competitive products for the international market. The current agreement will have both partners adding functions to the basic CD-ROM driver to make it a unique product that operates at 12 multiple speed. SEC will complete development of its new CD-ROM in the second half of this year and expects to market US$ 300 million worth of the new product by the end of the first half of 1997. SEC will also secure sales channels for future generations of CD-ROM drivers, allowing the company to compete head-on with Japanese manufacturers. Creative Technology specializes in the sales of multimedia products and was the first to load sound capabilities into a PC. Creative's 'Sound Blaster' currently occupies 60% of the world sound card market. The company has already produced its own double-speed, quadruple-speed and 8-multiple-speed CD-ROM drivers and sold them in packages with the sound cards. SEC got heavily involved in CD-ROM development and production last year and in March 1996 became the first Korean company to put an 8-multiple-speed device on the domestic market. The world CD-ROM market in 1995 was around 40 million units, and this year the figure is expected to jump some 38% to reach 55 million units.