Removable storage market to boom until 2004

The increasing popularity of recordable CD-ROMs is set to drive a boom in the removable storage market to $5.8bn in the next four years, according to researchers at IDC.

Peter Brown, analyst for IDC's storage program, is predicting a surge in shipments as recordable CD-ROMs increasingly replace the familiar floppy disk. "CD-ROM media is fuelling the removable media market," Brown said in a statement. "CD-recordable will become the primary floppy replacement technology for the desktop." The market still looks set for a shakeout as competing technologies battle for acceptance, particularly in the relatively young market for DVDs (digital versatile disks). "The lack of standard technology and small installed base of DVD-ROM drives capable of reading recorded DVD data will limit widespread adoption through 2004," Brown predicted.