Origin Of News Release: Tokyo, Japan
Original Release Date: February 19, 2008
Announcement: Toshiba To No Longer Develop HD DVD
Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content
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.
February 19, 2008
While Toshiba's announcement of plans to no longer develop HD DVD was coming, it is unfortunate Toshiba apparently will not be making dual-format players or Blu-ray players. This is a surprise. Toshiba has made some high-quality HD DVD players, and they would have been the first company I would have chosen to buy a Blu-ray player from.
Toshiba has been investing heavily in other tech sectors, such as NAND memory and LCD monitors, and I doubt today was the first day they decided to no longer develop HD DVD. In any case, this has been an interesting time in technological history. Early adopters certainly got a wake-up, but all is not doom and gloom. Blu-ray is an exciting format, and it will get better as time goes on. So, if I can quickly send a message here to HD DVD owners: Support your movie interests, and embrace Blu-ray as you would HD DVD. DigitalDingus does have some reservations about pricing of Blu-ray titles down the road, but overall, Blu-ray is a great HD format.
DigitalDingus will be posting comments and articles online in the near future for HD DVD owners. Suffice it to say, DigitalDingus has 104 HD DVD titles so far, and the numbers are actually increasing. Better deals are coming soon from retailers. So, take advantage of those deals while you can.
- DigitalDingus
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