Digitimes reports that Lite-On will gradually decrease the production of optical disc drives (ODD) and will heavily invest in solid state disks (SSD). Reasons behind the decision are the lower demand of PC ODDs and because Sony Optiarc has left the ODD business for which Lite-on did the manufacturing as an OEM. At the moment 70% of the company's revenue comes from ODD products and the company expects to decrease this to 30% by 2015.
The company has already laid of 37 people to deal with the decrease in ODD demand and 120 people are transferred to another business unit inside Lite-On. The focus of the company will broaden to other products including automotive wireless and medical devices. But the major grow of the company should be SSDs in which Lite-on will heavily invest to try to become worlds third largest player. To underline how hard the company is working to achieve this, they shipped 475% more SSD drives in 2012 than in 2011. The company will also invest $70M - $100M to triple it's production lines from currently 4 to 14 by 2013.
