Survey says: readers pick the right write media

Emedia Professional, Oct, 1998 by Marla Misek

Since the early 1990s, the markets for CD-Recordable and CD-ReWritable hardware and software have been awash in confusion over standards, specifications, and the longevity, pricing, and value of these technologies. Complicating matters, not only for consumers, hut for the vendors themselves, is the high number of manufacturers/distributors competing in the ever-evolving recordable media market.

In light of the quantity of branded CD-R and CD-RW media types available to today's end-user--and out of sheer curiosity--EMedia Professional conducted a CD-R media usage survey on its Web site from the beginning of March through mid-May 1998. Up for grabs: 100 free blank CD-R discs, courtesy of ProSource Sales & Marketing, to the winner of a random drawing of respondents completing the survey before May 15.

Consisting of five questions covering everything from favorite CD-R and CD-RW media to interest in DVD-Recordable, the ten-week survey gives us a clearer picture of which companies and media brand types are having most impact on the market, and a glimpse into the public's perceptions and interest level in both CD-RW and DVD-Recordable technologies.

QUESTION #1: What Brand of CD-R Media Is Your #1 Choice?

Among our respondents, Sony's 74-minute CD-R disc proved to be the most popular, with 26 people--15 percent of those responding--naming it as their first choice of CD-R media. Second to the Sony disc in terms of brand identity popularity was Verbatim's DataLife Plus CD-R disc, with 9 percent--or 18 voters--identifying it as their top preference. Third was Philips' 74-minute CD-R disc, with 7.5 percent of the votes.

The "top-pick" picture is complicated somewhat, however, by the variety of media brand types offered by each of the companies manufacturing and distributing CD-R media. For example, Eastman Kodak Corporation received 23 votes in all, a number which easily bumps the company into second place from a "company popularity," rather than "brand popularity," perspective. However, those 23 votes are divided among five media brand types, among them Kodak Writable CD Media with INFOGUARD, with 8 votes, and Kodak Gold, with 7 votes. Likewise, TDK's numerous offerings garnered 21 votes (10.6 percent), a number which could merit a third-place "company-preference" ranking. TDK's votes were broken up over six media types, including the TDK CD-R74 disc, with 13 votes.

QUESTION #2: What Brand of CD-RW Media Is Your #1 Choice?

Given CD-RW's relatively new status in the industry, it's not all that surprising that nearly 20 percent of our respondents failed to select a preferred CD-RW media brand. Three CD-RW brands split the lion's share of votes fairly evenly. Verbatim's DataLife Plus 74-minute CD-RW disc gathered 42 votes (21 percent of the survey population), followed closely by Hewlett-Packard with 38 votes and Ricoh, with 34. Once the availability of CD-RW media from various manufacturers swells--much as CD-R already has--these numbers will more than likely shift and disperse more evenly among the competitors.

QUESTION 3: How Many Blank CD-R Discs Does Your Department/ Company Use Per Year?

Far more diverse were the answers to question three. Responses, in fact, ranged from zero CD-R discs used per year to more than 1,000,000 discs per year. The majority of respondents--46.7 percent--use between 101 and 500 blank CD-R discs per year. Another 17.6 percent said they burn between one and 50 discs per year. And despite the perception that companies are publishing discs in bulk quantities, only four respondents in our survey claimed to record more than 100,000 discs per year, with only two indicating more than 1,000,000 per year.

QUESTION 4: Do You Have or Plan to Purchase Within 12 Months a CD-RW Drive?

On this question, the ratio of respondents owning or planning to own a CD-RW drive versus those not interested in one was roughly two to one, with 133 expressing a favorable response and 61 suggesting that they do not own, nor plan to purchase, a drive within the next year. As with CD-RW media, the growing awareness of CD-RW might enlarge hardware sales expectations in 1999.

QUESTION #5: Are You Interested in DVD-Recordable?

Despite the hype that surrounds DVD, our survey showed that two-thirds of the respondents are not interested in purchasing a DVD-Recordable drive for at least another year. Twenty percent of those participating in the survey indicated a general lack of interest in DVD-R, while another 46.7 percent showed some interest in purchasing a drive within the next 12 to 18 months. Roughly one-third of those surveyed said they would buy a DVD-R drive as soon as it is available. The survey did not gauge how much respondents were willing to pay, or how their interest would change if significant price reductions made DVD-Recorders available to a mass market.

WHAT IT MEANS, FOR NOW

What we can gather from this brief survey is that CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD-R technologies have impacted the consciousness of a select group of electronic media professionals and independent and amateur users. Unfortunately, it is impossible to determine from the results gathered here what factors currently drive purchasing decisions, levels of interest, and even usage. Nonetheless, surveys like this, and others, can certainly help those in this industry figure out what the next move should be, and when to make it.