It was to be expected, just perhaps not so quickly - budget PCs having DVD writers as standard. Gateway have released, under their eMachines brand, four budget machines, including one with a DVD burner and the low-end price tag of $499 after a $50 rebate. Could this be the beginning of a new trend in cheap PCs having DVD writers as standard?

The eMachines T2398... comes with a DVD+/-RW drive. Gateway isn't alone. Hewlett-Packard now lets customers upgrade CD-ROM drives to DVD +/-R/RW drives for free on HPshopping.com.

How long before others follow suit, and it becomes common place for even the cheapest and most basic of PCs to have DVD writing abilities? Certainly, with the increasing spread of broadband, and consumers needing greater and greater storage capacities, it's not ridiculous to imagine.