Sony and Panasonic have announced that they will jointly develop a next-generation optical disk standard that could hold at least 300 GB of data.

Although evidence suggests consumers are moving away from optical discs, Sony and Panasonic look to move optical discs into the next generation, hoping to achieve this by the end of 2015.

The pair cites durability as the main reason we won't see optical discs disappearing anytime soon, saying the optical disc is an ideal medium for long-term content storage.  They have identified the increasingly need for large-capacity data storage and look to provide a sophisticated solution. 

The companies have strong innovative records in the optic disc technologies field- Sony created a file-based optical disc archive system that houses twelve optical discs within one cartridge, while Panasonic has a system that uses a 20.8mm magazine that contains 100GB optical discs- and hope to further the work they have already started. 

The goal is to create a single disc with a large storage capacity to move optic discs into the next generation.

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