The market is notably characterised by the trend towards significantly higher-performance storage technologies, especially in the private consumer sector. High-resolution TV and videos are one of the key growth engines in this context. Products with optical storage units are also making their way increasingly into the digital camcorders market. As one of the technology leaders, Verbatim is addressing these growth trends in all areas. Since July 2006, Verbatim has also offered the Blu-Ray storage format, which offers a maximum storage capacity of 30 or 50 Gigabytes (dual layer) and, since the start of this year, HD DVD with 15 GB of storage capacity. All in all, however, according to Verbatim’s estimates, only about 150,000 units were sold in Europe.  At the present time, the film and gaming industry are working hard to establish Blu-Ray and HD DVD as playback formats. Consequently, they will also become commonplace in the long term as storage media and as the successors to DVD. “We only anticipate increased demand for Blu-Ray and HD DVD from 2008 onwards, once the hardware has made a bigger impact on the market", says Leye.

CD-R Loses Market Share, DVD Sales Boom
In contrast to DVD-R, the classical CD-R format is continuing to decline. In 2006, 2.19 billion CD-Rs were sold in Europe, some 72 million fewer than the previous year. Nevertheless, Verbatim still increased its market share in this sector by 2.3 percent to 28.7 per cent.

The outlook for DVD sales is even more impressive. In 2006, over 1.5 billion DVD-Rs were sold in Europe. This represents 400 million units more than the previous year. In the same period, Verbatim’s market share rose from 26 percent to approximately 35 percent. “This means that one in three DVD-R media sold in Europe comes from Verbatim”, says Leye. “And for DVD as an optical storage medium, we believe there is still tremendous growth potential for the next few years.”

Flash Storage Media is Still Advancing Fast
In the professional sector and also more often among keen private users, the trend is increasing towards flash-based memory cards for digital cameras, mobile phones, MP3 players and for the gaming market. Compact flash cards are already available with capacities of up to 16 Gigabytes. The most common formats are SD and Mini SD cards, but significant growth is also being seen among the miniature formats such as Micro SD for use in mobile telephones. The demand for UBS sticks for storing and transferring data, images and music files, is also booming. The year 2005 saw the popular storage capacities of 256 MB and 512 MB, but towards the end of 2006, the highest-selling USB sticks had a storage capacity of 1 Gigabyte. Memory sizes of between two and four Gigabytes are now no longer a rarity. In 2006, sales of USB sticks rose amid rapidly-falling prices in Europe by 5 million to a total of 29.1 million units. Despite a highly fragmented market and extremely tough competition, Verbatim has also managed to increase its market share in this product sector.

Verbatim 2007: Strong Focus on Flash Technologies
Over the last 38 years, Verbatim has been one of the trendsetters in the development of optical storage technologies, offering customers the ideal solutions for their ever-increasing demand of storage capacity. “We will be consistently pursuing this path, which means transferring the strong brand we have in the optical sector to the USB/Flash market", says Hans-Christoph Kaiser, Business Unit Manager Flash and USB Memory EUMEA at Verbatim.

About Verbatim:
Since 1969, Verbatim has been shaping the development of data storage technology – from floppy disks and magneto-optical storage media to the latest CD and DVD formats, USB keys, Flash memory cards and computer accessories. Verbatim is part of the Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Group and benefits from the outstanding research and development department. With these innovations Verbatim has played a key role in shaping the storage media market. Ultra-strict quality controls during the manufacturing process ensure the high quality of Verbatim’s products, which have been the winners of numerous international comparative tests. The company is the European market leader for optical media. For more information please visit: www.verbatim-europe.com

Editorial Contacts
Maria Csilics, Public Relations Executive EUMEA, Verbatim GmbH
Frankfurter Str. 63-69, 65760 Eschborn, Germany
Tel: +49 (6196) 9001-30
mcsilics@verbatim-europe.com