Consumers who are looking at getting their hands on fastest DVD writer available will be happy to know that Lite-On has unveiled its first 20x DVD writer, which Lite-On also claims to be the world's first official DVD writer capable of writing at 20x. According to DigitTimes, Lite-On launched two 20x models, the LH-20A1P and the LH-20A1H, with the only difference being LightScribe support added on the LH-20A1H model. Both writers feature DVD±R/RW, DVD±R DL, DVD-RAM and CD-RW writing capabilities.
Both 20x models will be first made available to the retail market and volume production of the LH-20A1P model is expected to start next month, followed by the LightScribe model in the first quarter of 2007. Other optical drive makers, including Sony, NEC and TSST also have plans to launch 20x models, but with their recent launch of 18x writers, they are holding back to avoid making their 18x models look like in-betwen models already, since consumers would likely go for either a 16x or 20x model rather than an in-between model if they had the three to choose from. According to Hitachi-LG Data Storage, the difference between 18x and 20x is also very small.
From what I can see, unless one needs to do volume copying, such as a business that needs to hand out 100's of brochures and catalogues on CD, for the average consumer, the difference between an 20x model and an 18x model is likely to be in the order of seconds, thus making the 20x speed more of a marketing gimmick for consumers.
LOL there was no real need for any burners faster than 12x!
12x PCAV does the disc in under 6 minutes. 16x-18x20x have virtually no advantage over 12x.
But you can't just bring out a 12x writer and say its as fast as a 20x. too many dumbasses out there will go for the 20x.
So from a companies perspective, they obviously have to match their competitors otherwise they'll go out of business.
BUT I'll be also happy with 16x-20x 
To have a drive that start at 6-8x and at the very end reach 20x is just marketing.
Unfortunately, its physically impossible to have the disc start burning a whole lot faster than 8x at the beginning merely because of physics. Note that angular velocity times the radius is linear velocity (aka, x MB/s). At the beginning of a burn, the radius is small (its near the inside of the disc).
For simplicity's sake, lets say that an angular velocity of 8+ radians/sec causes the disc to shatter, and that at the beginning of the burn the radius is 1 and at the end the radius is 2. Thus, when burning in CAV (Constant Angular Velocity - keep angular velocity the same), the linear velocity at the beginning of the burn is 8 rad/s * 1 (Radius) = 8x burning speed (Linear Velocity). At the end of a burn, the linear velocity is 8 * 2 = 16x.
Note this is a dumbed down explanation. I made the numbers work out that way to make the problem easy to explain...in real life they are different.
Anyway, this is the main reason why you cant burn a whole lot faster than 8x at the beginning of the disc. If you did, it would force the angular velocity too high, resulting in huge errors or a disc shatter.
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