Toshiba gives up. Will pull the plug on HD DVD
Category: Industry, Posted: 02/15/2008 at 11:56AM CST by Frank Ling, Editorial Director
It seems that the HD DVD funeral procession may be starting soon as insider industry sources have indicated that Toshiba will be throwing in the towel and retire the HD-DVD format, thus securing the rival Blu-ray as the victor in the next gen DVD wars.
Industry watchers have been proclaiming the death of HD-DVD for many weeks now following the announcement of Warner Bros. going exclusively to Blu-ray.
Although no official announcement has been made yet, the writing on the wall seems to show that Toshiba is getting ready to finally pull the plug on HD DVD. Jodi Sally, VP of marketing at Toshiba America tried to put a positive spin on the situation but seems to have acknowledged that the war is over.
"Based on its technological advancements, we continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers, given the value and consistent quality inherent in our player offerings.
"Given the market developments in the past month, Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players."
Deep discounts have been offered for the ailing HD DVD players of late and although the prospect of picking up one of these devices was enticing, due to the low pricing and promotional offerings regarding free HD DVD movies with the purchase of the players, the marketing ploy never took off. Presently Blu-ray holds 65% of the market share in next gen DVD players as opposed to only 28% for HD DVD.
The attempt by Toshiba to save HD DVD by offering huge discounts has put the company in a bind as it reportedly took losses as much as several hundred dollars per machine sold. With Blu-ray increasing its lead daily, it looks as though Toshiba is too far behind to ever hope to catch up and is calling it quits.
[via hollywoodreporter]
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Ouch. Good thing I didn't bother buying either of these :P I guess in the coming years I'll have to invest in a Blu-ray player. Oh, and a HD tv, I guess.
Wow, that was quick, I expected a longer fight. Well, now at least there's not going to be any question about which to buy thank god
YAY!!!!
Dear HD-DVD Supporters.
I told you so.
Collision.
me wonders if there will now be a surge in ps3 sales =/
The smart money was on . . . not buying either until the dust settled. I think the big players also knew that, which is why they staged this very successful coup. It must have cost Sony billions to pay off everyone at once. Regardless of methods, one standard had to prevail, else there would never be a good market for high-definition video discs.
While it is a shame about HD-DVDs demise, I have the HD-DVD add on for the 360, i hope this means some really low, discounted HD-DVDs that i can snap up. Just because the format is dead, does not mean that there are not really cool movies to be had. (The Bourne Trilogy, Transformers, Harry Potter, Alexander, etc. Might as well get some use out of the player right?
Sony took an enormous risk including Blu-Ray with the PS3 right out of the box, and it seems to have paid off. From the very beginning, Blu-Ray disc sales outpaced HD-DVD by a sizable margin. The writing was on the wall from the beginning, and became especially clear with Warner Bros. move to Blu-Ray.
I thought for a while there that hd-dvd's were smoking the blu ray, a short while, but still it was there. But then blu-ray took over no problem. I'm okay with that, doesent effect me anyways, lol.
Honestly, it probably just came to the fact that blu-ray sounds cooler.