Physical media giant Verbatim goes over the hill this year, celebrating its 40th year of existence.
The company sent us a handful of press materials chronicling its long history. From its start as Information Terminals Corporation and renamed shortly thereafter to the Latin word for "literally", Verbatim has moved from data cassettes and floppy discs to Blu-ray and hard drives. The company has been a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Group since 1990.
Over the years, the company claimed a number of firsts, including CD-RW media, 16x extended capacity CD-Rs, 32x ultra speed CD-Rs, silver inkjet printer CD-Rs, 15-GB HD DVD-R s, mini BD media and the first 8x Lightscribe DVD+R DL to market.
With the future of optical media in doubt, I think Verbatim was wise to acquire SmartDisk in 2007. In doing so, the company was able to expand into portable hard drives. "Verbatim recognized that consumers and business professionals need the full range of removable and portable storage options – optical, flash and hard disk," the press release notes. The company also offers a line of USB and SD cards.
One thing that's missing from all the press materials is a look into the future. Does Verbatim think optical media will stick around in the form of holographic discs, or will flash drives and hard drives dominate? I understand Verbatim might not want to discuss its business strategies, but a glimpse into where the 40-year-old company thinks media storage is going is certainly welcome.
Also, where is the cheap champagne?
We here at CDFreaks have been impressed many times over by Verbatim's advancements in optical storage technology as well as their superb media quality. We hope to see yet another 40 years of technology advancements from Verbatim & Mitsubishi Chemicals.
