Japan's TDK has aligned itself behind the Blu ray format and has produced a prototype of a recordable blue laser disc that has a capacity of 200 GB. On Thursday, TDK also announced that it would begin shipping 50GB recordable and rewritable Blu-ray discs in the coming week.

Earlier TDK's Blu ray discs had a capacity of 25 GB per layer, but current discs have the capacity of 33 GB per layer. The 200 GB disc is six layered with each layer having a capacity of 33 GB. "Data storage requirements for business users are increasing -- everybody wants higher capacity," said Taro Ikushima, head of product marketing for TDK.

Read more about TDK's 200 GB Blu-ray discs at earthtimes.org.