Related Web Works

[CMP][Interactive Age Digital] [Visit Lotus] [View Novell]

Ê [News Now] [Image] SPECIAL REPORT: CD-ROMs Lose Luster to Web

Technology viable for only a limited number of users.

October 24,1996 Charles Waltner

Although some industry observers have predicted the demise of CD-ROMs, it appears the technology will survive among a limited number of small corporate users interested in convenience and security.

First introduced in 1985, CD-ROMs were expected to revolutionize the multimedia market. Instead, they have taken a backseat to the World Wide Web. The Web's ease of access overshadows many of the advantages of CD-ROMs, such as faster data delivery and richer multimedia presentation.

But as it did for CD-ROMs, the initial blush for the Web is fading as technological reality sets in. Data communication speeds have taken most of the bite out of the Web's multimedia capabilities. For now, the Web's weaknesses are CD-ROM's strengths.

So, the CD-ROM industry is providing new incentives to promote use of its products. Those include hybrid discs, network servers, inexpensive CD-ROM writers, and, at least in theory, a new standard of multimedia delivery called Digital Video Discs (DVD).

These advances are helping to make the CD-ROM an appealing option for some corporate and institutional users, even as the consumer market for the medium withers as interest in the Web grows.

"It's not to say the Web won't have an impact, but CD-ROMs are not dead," said David Lasner, director of multimedia products for Macromedia Inc., San Francisco. "From a corporate standpoint, CD-ROM will be a primary means of delivering information."

Indeed, the impressive growth of the CD-ROM market has been lost in the fanfare surrounding the Web. Even with interest fading from the consumer market, between 1992 and 1993 worldwide CD-ROM unit sales of institutional and consumer titles jumped nearly 200 percent, to 35.2 million units, according to InfoTech, a Woodstock, Vt.-based consulting firm.

In 1994, growth in sales accelerated to 334 percent and 152 million units over 1993. Sales in 1995 tapered off a bit but were still a hardy 166 percent over 1994.

Prices of institutional CD-ROM titles, however, have dropped during the past few years, falling an average of more than 40 percent in 1994 and less than 10 percent in 1995, according to InfoTech.

Much of the future growth of CD-ROMs is expected to come from outside the United States, mostly in Asia and Europe, where underdeveloped data communications infrastructures have made the Web and online services less of a viable option, Pine added.

But there's still a market in the States. Laurie Hansen, manager of office automation for West Publishing Co., Eagan, Minn., said small law offices of between one and 10 partners have narrower needs and tighter budgets, so they still prefer receiving West Publishing's stock of legal documents on CD-ROMs. "CD-ROM is still the preferred choice of many, many users," Hansen said.

But given the growth of the Web, Hansen said, the number of CD-ROM units shipped by West Publishing will likely decline during the next five to 10 years. Larger law firms, she said, favor West Publishing's online services for comprehensive access to data with current updates.

Although Hansen said she sees CD-ROM sales dropping as the Web improves its speed and multimedia capabilities, she said the discs still offer advantages, such as portability. Business executives enjoy the option of being able to do research while flying in a plane or traveling in a remote location. "That's still something you can't do well with online services," Hansen said.

[Ted Pine, chairman of InfoTech, said that essential data will still be delivered via CD-ROMs because of their speed, dependability and security.

For their part, CD-ROM producers said they hope hybrid discs, which are supposed to team the high bandwidth of CD-ROMs with the timeliness of online delivery, will help stave off competition from the Web. Dan Ryan, director of marketing for Compact Devices Inc., Campbell, Calif., said he expects hybrids to gain greater popularity in institutional and corporate applications during the next year or two.

But that prediction may be overly optimistic. The hybrids, which began appearing more than a year ago and were touted as being the savior of the industry because they offered the best of both worlds, have yet to produce any clear winners.

Charles Kawasaki, executive vice president of production development for Creative Multimedia Inc., Portland, Ore., said that development of compelling hybrid CD-ROMs has been hampered by a lack of development software and innovative applications of the concept. Hybrids pose a challenge for developers because work must take place on three levels of programming at once: the CD-ROM, the Web (which provides the update information) and the systems to smoothly integrate the two.

A survey of CD-ROM developers indicated that still only about 20 percent are actively pursuing hybrid CD-ROMs.

The CD-ROM industry is also trying to help its cause by developing specialized servers. CD-ROM servers avoid "sneaker nets" and control problems previously encountered with desktop-oriented CD-ROMs. With these servers, information systems (IS) managers can control access to a company's CD-ROM library from a centralized data server and easily distribute the information over a LAN for company-wide access. The IS staff also can regulate information updates so everyone is on the same page.

CD-ROM servers also offer complete security and innate archiving, two features the Web and other online distribution systems lack.

What's Ahead

But even with the added convenience of CD-ROM servers, West Publishing's Hansen said that IS personnel face greater administrative challenges with CD-ROMs compared to what's involved in pulling information from online services or the Web. Subscription update discs, which West Publishing often sends out monthly, need to be swapped with the current discs and synchronized with existing data.

"That's okay if you just have a few subscriptions," Hansen said. Often, however, companies subscribe to several titles. Hansen said she knew of some organizations which run CD-ROM update procedures daily.

Ryan also said that the growing affordability of CD-ROM writers should help spur use of the CD-ROM. Inexpensive writers allow corporations to author discs in handfuls rather than the bulk runs now required by large production facilities. Marketing departments will be able to create flashy, customized multimedia programs which traveling salespeople could use on visits to remote customers.

Perhaps the CD-ROM industry's greatest hope for growth is DVD. DVD will run feature-length movies and is intended to replace VHS tape during the next 10 years. In this format, developers will be able to combine text, graphics and audio with full-motion, high-quality video - a feature not likely to be available over the Internet for a decade or more.

Lasner said DVD will help provide a boost to CD-ROMs as an appealing means for corporate communications in such applications as high-performance simulations, detailed catalogs and training. Levi's, for example, could distribute a simulated runway fashion on DVD to its retailers to promote its clothing line. DVD could replace the VHS tape as a promotional tool in the corporate world, too, Ryan added.

--Charles Waltner is a freelance writer in Seattle. He can be reached at cwaltner@netquest.net.

[Morenews.gif -]

[Image]

[Navigation Bar -- Please load image] Ê Ê MAIL | NEWS NOW | NEXT GEN | CLICK STREAM | NET WORTH | MAP | SEARCH | HOME

[Image] [Image]