OPINION • FEBRUARY 1 , 2001
Guest Opinion: One Small Step Back Isn't All Bad in Delivering the Video World
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The second revolution
It was only a decade ago that Apple pioneered the first communications revolution with desktop publishing. About two years ago, they began launching the second revolution…desktop video. Perhaps the leap past CD-RW to rewritable DVD was too large.

But we have to remember that at the time, all of the industry pundits were forecasting that there was no market for CD-RW and that everyone would go directly to rewritable DVD. Meanwhile, the CD drive and media manufacturers made inroads as rewritable DVD drive production got off to a slow, painful start.

CD-RW not only carved out a market space, it established itself the dominant storage solution for the coming decade. While rewritable DVD drive and media prices still remain relatively high, CD-RW drives and CD-R/CD-RW media costs have dropped dramatically.

Small step back
Now that Apple has stepped back slightly from to offer CD-RW drives, smug industry analysts shouldn't view it as a retreat or as an effort to "win back some of the sales that had gone to Windows-based systems."

Instead, the Mac community still knows it has the best platform for desktop video production. More people will begin producing video CDs. As they become more proficient and more experienced, they will either upgrade to a newer, more powerful system or will add a FireWire-ready external rewritable DVD drive.

It's all about being flexible and creative ... something the Mac community has gotten very good at over the years.

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Ron Hanafin joined Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Japan in 1994 following his graduation for Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland, where he received his bachelor degree in Electronic Engineering. Initially joining the company's Yokohama Research Institute, he later moved to the firm's storage media group (CD and DVD) as a research engineer. Following two years in product development he became a technical support engineer with Mitsubishi Chemical Media for the Asia Pacific Region. In 1998 he was appointed technical marketing manager for both Mitsubishi Chemical Media and Verbatim Asia Pacific. In 1999 he transferred to Verbatim Corp.'s worldwide headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. as CD-R/RW Product Manager, where he is responsible for guiding the firm's CD product development and marketing programs.

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