February 19th, 2008
Netflix and Wal-Mart announced their exclusive backing of Blu-Ray last week, and now the high definition format war has officially come to an end with HD DVD pioneer Toshiba conceding defeat.
Toshiba issued a press release today which confirms that the corporation 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.
‘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.
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.
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Posted by Tai in Blu-ray & HD DVD • 
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I prefer Obama to McCain. Now, McCain’s better than average for a Republican. And though his ads are intellectually offensive, he’s just bowing to his campaign masters and would calm down and be more sane once in office and not campaigning. But I have a few concerns with McCain on foreign policy. He’s not a full-fledged Neocon. That’s good. He opposed Reagan on Lebanon. Good. He was critical of Bush’s initial strategy in Iraq. That’s good. But there’s a problem. He thinks the Vietnam war was winnable and that the US shouldn’t have withdrawn. He’s also eager to spread democracy with force. This just isn’t a good set of beliefs for inheriting Iraq.