According to ZDNET, Hewlett-Packard will begin selling a DVD+RW drive early next month for $599. Along with being able to write to DVD+RW discs, the drive will also be able to write to CD-R and CD-RW discs at 12X and 10X speeds, respectively.
The ZDNET article goes on at length about a format war between DVD+RW and the competing DVD-RW format, but I’m not sure how much of a factor that will be. The bottom line is that both DVD+RW and DVD-RW media will be readable by consumer-level DVD players (at least recently manufactured DVD players with the most recent ROM versions). That puts them light years (pun intended) ahead of DVD-RAM which is cheaper and features storage up to 9.4 gigabytes, but uses a cartridge-based media.
I suspect the ultimate thing that determines whether DVD+RW or DVD-RW wins will be largely based on price, and considering the HP drive is coming it at about $200 less than the current DVD-RW drive offering from Panasonic, it just might have the early lead.
Not to mention an actual presence in stores. Best Buy, for example, will sell you a DVD-RW drive for $799, but only with a special order. An HP DVD+RW drive that’s actually on store shelves at $200 less is going to be a clear winner with early adopters.