RIP HD DVD 2002-2008
Listed under: News
Published: Monday, February 25, 2008
Well, the moment that the industry has been waiting for has finally arrived. After a few bloody skirmishes, the war between Blu-ray and HD DVD has come to an end with the latter's major supporter Toshiba admitting defeat.
The electronics giant announced that it “will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders... following recent major changes in the market.” Shipments of HD DVD players to retail channels will be reduced accordingly, leading to cessation by the end of next month. However, customers are being assured that all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products will continue to receive after-sales service and full product support.
“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.”
Despite the fact that we have not yet reached the end of February, 2008 had already been a difficult year for HD DVD, with one of the major set-backs occurring last month when, prior to CES, Warner Brothers announced its defection to the rival format.
Toshiba will live on, of course, with the company reportedly set to refocus its attention on technologies such as high-capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies.
The move by Toshiba has also unsurprisingly led to an announcement that software giant Microsoft will "no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360". With blame placed firmly on "recent decisions made by Toshiba, Hollywood studios, and retailers", the question now is whether or not the company will opt to provide a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360.
“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.”
Despite the fact that we have not yet reached the end of February, 2008 had already been a difficult year for HD DVD, with one of the major set-backs occurring last month when, prior to CES, Warner Brothers announced its defection to the rival format.
Toshiba will live on, of course, with the company reportedly set to refocus its attention on technologies such as high-capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies.
The move by Toshiba has also unsurprisingly led to an announcement that software giant Microsoft will "no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360". With blame placed firmly on "recent decisions made by Toshiba, Hollywood studios, and retailers", the question now is whether or not the company will opt to provide a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360.
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