Japan's Toshiba Corp surrendered in the high-definition home movie war, giving up on its HD DVD format after losing the support of key studios and retailers to the Blu-ray technology backed by Sony Corp and said it would aim to end its HD DVD business by the end of next month.
The Blu-ray win means consumers no longer have to choose between rival incompatible formats and run the risk of being stuck with a 21st century equivalent of Betamax, Sony's videotape format that lost out to VHS in the 1980s.
The tide turned against HD DVD after the defection to Blu-ray by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros studio last month.
The following week, Blu-ray took 93% of next-generation DVD hardware sales in North America, according to the NPD group.
Blu-ray made up 81% of all high-definition disc sales in the week ending February 10.
While Toshiba has lost the chance to be the leader in the next generation of movie discs, investors welcomed its decision to cut its losses on HD DVD early and invest in more promising businesses..
Toshiba has HD DVD agreements with studios including NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, which will now likely switch to Blu-ray.
Existing Blu-ray supporters include News Corp's 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Sony's PlayStation 3 game console also plays Blu-ray films.
Toshiba, which began sales of HD DVD players in March 2006, has sold 1 million players and recorders, including sales of drives for another supporter, Microsoft Corp, for its XBox 360 game console. Another roughly 700,000 HD DVD drives have been sold for PCs.
The Blu-ray win means consumers no longer have to choose between rival incompatible formats and run the risk of being stuck with a 21st century equivalent of Betamax, Sony's videotape format that lost out to VHS in the 1980s.
The tide turned against HD DVD after the defection to Blu-ray by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros studio last month.
The following week, Blu-ray took 93% of next-generation DVD hardware sales in North America, according to the NPD group.
Blu-ray made up 81% of all high-definition disc sales in the week ending February 10.
While Toshiba has lost the chance to be the leader in the next generation of movie discs, investors welcomed its decision to cut its losses on HD DVD early and invest in more promising businesses..
Toshiba has HD DVD agreements with studios including NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, which will now likely switch to Blu-ray.
Existing Blu-ray supporters include News Corp's 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Sony's PlayStation 3 game console also plays Blu-ray films.
Toshiba, which began sales of HD DVD players in March 2006, has sold 1 million players and recorders, including sales of drives for another supporter, Microsoft Corp, for its XBox 360 game console. Another roughly 700,000 HD DVD drives have been sold for PCs.
I hope the prices of blue-ray players do come down now.
ReplyDeleteI hope they do aswell but my personal opinion is that they wont until another company produces the same technology.
ReplyDelete