Panasonic managed to develop a 7mm thin DVD drive for notebooks. This is of course the world's thinnest DVD drive at the moment.

The Super Multi Drive reads DVD-RAM, DVD-R, +R, DVD-RW, +RW, CD-R and CD-RW, DVD-ROM and CD-ROM discs.
The weight of the new Panasonic drive is just 99g. The slim form factor and the low weight should be basis for new thinner and lighter notebooks with optical drive. Apparently Panasonic has already started to ship the DVD drive to notebook makers.
Via this Panasonic press-release (Japanese).

Toshiba released this week the first HD DVD writer drive for notebooks.