Third blue laser diode producer
- Thread starter PiNkY
- Start date
Wasn't Sharp the "second" manufacturer of blue diodes?
I think first and second are Nichia and Sony.
heliosphere
Newcomer
When I first read that title I thought it said third blue laser diode produced - I didn't realise production problems were that bad 
Sharp is the second "merchant supplier", third supplier overall. What's interesting was back in July they weren't talking about being a merchant supplier rather just focussing on their own products. Althoug judging by most statments in the past month it doesn't look like they'll be devoting a large amount of capacity to suppliment Nichia.
mckmas8808
Legend
When I first read that title I thought it said third blue laser diode produced - I didn't realise production problems were that bad
Me too. I was like, "Damn I have 1 out of the 3 diodes in the world". Did the 2nd second of time went by and I laughed at myself.
jamesnmandy
Newcomer
whats funny is i never heard of a shortage of HD-DVD players while Sony was pointing the finger at the blue diode situation as a reason they couldn't deliver
mckmas8808
Legend
How many HD-DVD players were sold up until this date? 300,000? Sony has to make at least 1,000,000 a month. That's the difference.
even 300,000 sounds a bit high
There's been shortages of the HDA1 (the only real player, prior to the 360 drive), from what I've heard. And, as Mckmas mentioned, the volumes and time frames are completely different. So, really, it's not that funny. =p
jamesnmandy
Newcomer
it just seems funny to me that i havent heard M$ having to deal with HD-DVD drive shortages, while Sony practically rode that horse hard, i can go out right now and buy a HD-DVD drive with the blue diode in it, but i can't find a PS3, or havent seen one anyways......but whatever.....
mckmas8808
Legend
Dude again there's a big difference between making 1 million PS3s and demand being higher than that and having 100,000 HD-DVD drives with demand not as high as the PS3.
Make sense?
Besides, it's not like those things are are just sitting idle on store shelves around the world. Most places (Amazon US excepted it seems), they sell out as soon as they get in, and you'd almost be lucky do get one. I bet MS would have very much liked to be able to increase supply of the drive.
Did any PS3 BOM's included Blue Diode costs, or BRD drive costs only? How do Sharp's manufacturing methods compare with Nichia+Sony's, especially in costs (ie. Are their diodes cheaper? Though in a tight market like this, I expect them to charge as much as rivals even if they can produce them cheaper). How are the other BRD drive components priced? Specifically the motor(s) for head control which are very accurate.
Not that I have any numbers, but the other expensive thing in BR-Drives is the optical pickup (you need different lenses for reading dvds and br discs, hddvd is more elegant in this regard). I have a hard time believing that the motors are anything fancy. Even the cheapest harddrives have way higher information density on their platters and perform at significantly higher velocities (disc velcoity, head positioning and so on and so forth). AFAIK, DVD Roms and burners were quite a bit more expansive at the time of their release.
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