With HD DVD exiting, ‘the hard sell begins’
p2pnet news | Products:- With Toshiba, et al, and their HD DVD, it’s Blu-Ray time and Reuters sums it up thus:
Now the hard sell begins.
Yesterday, “According to ’sources close to Toshiba,’ the firm will, ‘hold a board meeting in the near future to formally decide to abandon production of HD DVD recorders and players and other related accessories’,” said the Yomiuri Shimbun, going on:
“Toshiba is likely to maintain sales of HD DVD recorders and players for a while, but is expected to stop producing players for personal computers and recorders for televisions, and drop the development of new products”
Bloomberg News has Mitsushige Akino, who oversees about $560 million in assets as chief investment officer at Ichiyoshi Investment Management in Tokyo, saying:
“Quitting would be positive for Toshiba in the mid- to long-term as it can back out of the business before the wound gets any deeper.”
Now, “This has been a long overdue end to the format war that has frustrated and confused consumers, and will allow vendors to focus resources on the Blu-ray technology,” Reuters qotes IDC analyst Claudio Checchia as saying.
“I would expect a more aggressive push towards Blu-ray in the second half, resulting in more movie content, more stand-alone DVD players, and prices for these players falling to attractive levels by Christmas.”
And the news is likley to give a desperately needed boost to Sony’s flagging PlayStation 3 video game console.
At about $400, it’s currently the least expensive Blu-Ray player on the market.
But, “Prices for players need to fall to $200 and below before they get consideration from the mass market, and I would expect companies would push prices down aggressively now that the uncertainty over the format war is over,” says Checchia.
And “Apart from a mushrooming of stand-alone DVD players,” analysts expect more Blu-ray players to be embedded in laptop and desktop PCs from next year, says Reuters.
“Companies in the Blu-ray camp, which include Apple Inc , Dell Inc, Philips and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, could start investing more aggressively in the technology and get a head-start in terms of launching products, analysts said.”
The ‘Wal-Mart effect‘ and a, “series of crushing setbacks in Hollywood have left Toshiba facing defeat in its format war with Sony for domination of home entertainment,” says Times Online, adding:
“A possible decision by Toshiba to pull out of its HD-DVD standard of next-generation DVDs would effectively end the battle with Sony’s Blu-ray discs after only a year of serious retail competition.
“Paramount remains the largest of the big American studios still loyal to the HD-DVD format, but members of the HD-DVD consortium, which is the 135-strong corporate alliance formed to promote the Toshiba format of next-generation DVDs, told The Times that they expected the group’s “total collapse” within the next few weeks.”
Also See:
Reuters – Home movie DVD battle won, hard sell begins, February 18, 2008
abandon production – Toshiba abandons HD DVD, February 17, 2008
Bloomberg News – Toshiba Shares Rise on Possible Plan to Quit HD DVD, February 18, 2008
Wal-Mart effect – Wal-Mart dumps HD DVD, February 16, 2008
Times Online – Toshiba shares surge on expected HD-DVD exit, February 18, 2008
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February 18th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I guess I will be sticking to the old DVD format. I don’t ever intend on buying anything from Sony, nor do I intend to support Sony via a patent tax, etc. Once a company deliberately tries to infect my computer with spy ware, there is no way I would trust their products again. If Sony is put out of business for their willful violation of their customers’ property, maybe other big companies will think twice about doing the same thing.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I am boycotiing Sony music and electronic included.
I am not going to buy electronic that include rootkit and other DRM crap nor Blank Blue ray disk, CD or DVD that will fall apart after few years! Deu! For the time beieng I am happy with my CD and DVD even thought Blue Ray copy protection is already cracked.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
…and I thought I was the only one refusing to buy Sony products again. Their warranty replacement experience was atrocious when I had to deal with them once, long before the rootkit affair. After the rootkit business, I learned that if they will treat their customers this way, then in the future you can look for more of the same because it originates from the same mentality at the top board members.
While complaining of infringement issues for their products, they don’t bat an eye when it comes to others infringements that would benefit them. That was readily demonstrated with the required player as part of the rootkit affair. Sony uses the charge of it being third party developers responsible for it but it wasn’t third party that distributed it. As they so love to charge others with distribution when it comes to IP property rights, it is their responsibility as the distributor to know what they are distributing.
After all according to their CEO, why would a customer even care what a rootkit is? Once caught, then it was worming around on the hook, trying to milk the situation for datamining, and all at the same time claiming it was no concern for the customer. Sony did everything it could NOT to come clean, weaseled every way it could to get benefit from those wronged customers, including denying the whole mess until their nose was rubbed in it publicly. If they will do that with software and your computer, what else will they do? Put a temporary monitor chip in your computer to report back? Require your player have internet connection to work? I put nothing above this corporation for underhanded and dirty tactics. I sure as heck am not going to reward this type of actions and attitudes with my money. When I see the brand Sony, I look for other brands. If they are not there, I walk out of the store and look elsewhere.
February 18th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
It’s winnar.