Many commentators have already written off Philips Electronics NV’s Compact Disk-interactive home entertainment system as another failure, but the system could come bounding back into contention later this year. John Hawkins, executive vice-president of Philips Media, told Reuters he expects to have news in a few months on an optical disk that can be erased and re-recorded, so that the machine could double as a video recorder alternative. However the erasable optical disk will initially be aimed at computer applications, and would reach the consumer market only later, not least because of the copyright protection issues. Philips is partnered with Sony Corp on the less fancied of the two rival Digital Video Disk standards, and the erasable disk it is discussing is likely to be related to Sony’s slow-selling recordable MiniDisk audio system.
