Acording to Taiwan makers quoted in this DigiTimes report, the 18x burners are going to make some impressive sales gains in the coming months. They can already feel the demand growing for these faster drives and manufacturers are responding to the market now.

Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology (TSST) this month will launch its 18x Super Multi DVD burners, which have a writing speed of 12x for the DVD-RAM format, higher than the 4-6x of other Super Multi models, the sources indicated. Japan-based Plextor launched a 18x DVD Dual burner in February of this year. Lite-On IT, Taiwan's largest ODD maker, is poised to begin volume production of 18x DVD burners next quarter.

Heh. Who cares about 18x burners or 16x. Most users don't need more than 8x burning. It is fast enough. We need to improve DL speed and bring the prices down!