Verbatim and I-O Data have pledged to continue to support the recordable optical media market. In a press release on Verbatim's Japanese site, the storage brand wrote (machine translation) that it "will respond to the trust of customers through stable supply of optical disks in the Japanese market and continuing sales." It also signaled that this statement had been precipitated by worried customers hearing about the withdrawal of other major manufacturers.
It is evident that Verbatim was stirred into making its reassurances after Sony's recent public withdrawal from the recordable Blu-ray, MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassette markets. Sony will shutter its last Japanese facility where it manufactured these data storage media sometime this month. It had already stopped supplying recordable Blu-rays to consumers last summer, and it has now drawn a line under commercial supplies with the factory closure.
