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Koninklijke Philips Electronics and Benq are to work together on development of optical storage products, initially focusing on DVD+RW drives, the companies announced Monday.

Together, the companies think they can bring faster DVD+RW products and other new optical storage products to market before the competition, Philips of Amsterdam and Benq of Taipei said in a joint statement.

Benq is the new name for Acer Communications & Multimedia.

The alliance will see Philips work on innovations and new storage concepts, while Benq will focus on delivering speed improvements once the technologies mature, the companies say.

Product Plans

Philips and Benq will establish a design house to develop next generation DVD+RW products using Philips' reference designs, chipsets, and other components. The resulting products will be manufactured in Philips and Benq factories, and marketed and sold independently by both companies.

The first products from the partnership are expected in 2003, following a Philips launch of these products this year, the companies say.

DVD+RW is a standard for recording data and video on optical discs backed by a variety of vendors including Philips, Dell Computer, and Thomson Multimedia2. It faces competition from another format, the DVD-RW standard, which is being pushed by the DVD Forum and vendors including Pioneer.