As reported Saturday, Toshiba has decided to abandon it’s HD DVD in the format war with competitor Sony and it’s Blu-Ray Disc.
The official Toshiba press release:
Press Release Source: Toshiba Corporation
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses
Tuesday February 19, 3:00 am ET
Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition ContentTOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.
“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”
Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.
Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.
This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.
Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.
Contact:Toshiba Corporation
Keisuke Ohmori, +81-3-3457-2105
Corporate Communications Office
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/contact/media.htm
or
Weber Shandwick for Toshiba
Dane Estes, +1-425-452-5400
[email protected]Source: Toshiba Corporation
As a consumer who supported both formats, in terms of enjoyment of the product as an end user, one format was really no better nor worse than the other, in my own personal experience – I thought both were phenomenal, and it really came down to the discs themselves (and especially the quality of the source material and transfer). Newer films in particular were spectacular.
As a result, I think that these events show the power of the studios, in that it really didn’t come down to the technology, or even price (HD DVD players were less expensive), but studio support. Once Warner Bros. defected to Blu-Ray, everything changed very quickly and it all came down like a house of cards.
Having said all that, the fire sale on players and discs started before the official announcement above, so there will be even better deals to be had in the coming weeks, I would imagine. There are some fantastic discs out that are HD DVD exclusive now, and while they are sure to show up on Blu-Ray Disc in the future, if they could be had inexpensively, they might be worth picking up to enjoy, depending on where and how you watch your media. Some of my favorites include The Bourne trilogy, The Matrix trilogy, Serenity, Batman Begins, Top Gun, V for Vendetta, and others.
Previous OPB Reports: “HD Format War Developments“, “More HD War Developments Out of CES“, “HD Format War – More Bad News for HD DVD“, “HD Format War – Two More Blows Against HD DVD“, “HD Format War News Reports: Toshiba Expected To “Pull The Plug… In The Coming Weeks”, “Reports: Format War Over, Toshiba To Exit HD DVD Business”
Jason De Bord