The production of blue-laser pick-up heads (PUHs) by only a few makers, including Pioneer, Philips, Hitachi and Sony, is insufficient to meet increasing global demand for blue-laser DVD players, recorders, drives and burners, and the shortage is expected to be significant in the fourth quarter of this year, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

Although the global market for next-generation blue-laser drives, burners and players/recorders is still in its infancy, international vendors of desktop and notebook PCs as well as consumer electronics have placed OEM orders for such products to test the market during the traditional peak season next quarter, the sources indicated.

The Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3, with a built-in Blu-ray Disc drive), which is scheduled to be launched in November, accounts for part of the demand, the sources noted.

Existing makers of blue-laser PUHs, however, have not expanded their production capacities and the defect rate of high-power laser diodes, a key component of PUHs, have not been reduced significantly, the sources said. Consequently, the global supply of blue-laser PUHs is unable to rise with increasing demand for the time being, the sources pointed out.