Toshiba Ends Fight for HD DVD Format, More Consumers Seek Blu-Ray
February 20, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) After two years of battling Sony Inc. for their HD DVD format products, Toshiba called it quits and decided to concede victory to rival company Sony and its Blu Ray DVD format products which prove to be clearly more superior to the HD.
“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,” Toshiba President and Chief Executive Atsutoshi Nishida said in a news release.
The decision to part with the HD DVD format came in the wake of major movie rental companies and retailers in the US showing support to Blu-Ray technology by Sony. Last week, Netflix the biggest online DVD rental service in the US which offers movie rental by mail for a flat fee, gave their support to Blu-Ray and decided to cut ties with HD DVD format. Also, Walmart announced that they will discard selling HD DVD format on all their retail locations nationwide by next month.
The biggest blow perhaps to Toshiba and their ending of HD DVD format was the announcement last month of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment which is one of the largest films producing company in the world and currently distributes both HD DVD and Blu-Ray format that it would distribute their DVD’s in Blu-Ray format alone by the middle of this year.
In a statement last month Warner Bro. defined its decision by saying, “Warner Brothers’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” Barry Meyer, chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers. “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger.”
Currently, gaming consoles such as PS3 have the ability to read Blu-Ray DVD format and the other Major film industry leaders such as Disney, MGM, Dell, Philips and 20th Century supports Blu-Ray. Experts in the industry note that gigantic tasks lie ahead for Blu-Ray if it plans to surpass the success of DVD’s in the 90’s. David Mercer, an analyst at Strategy Analytics says, “Blu-ray Disc has passed its first real test by beating HD-DVD, but a much bigger challenge now lies ahead if BD is to become as successful as DVD, and content owners, retailers and manufacturers must now demonstrate that they can work together to promote BD effectively.”
Posted by News LI Editor · Filed Under Tech
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