Sony Blu-Ray Wins

By Mickey on February 21, 2008 5:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It was announced yesterday that Toshiba dropped out of the High Definition DVD war. Toshiba bowed to business reality and announced it would end its HD DVD product line and cede the field to Sony's Blu-ray disc technology. "We concluded that a swift decision would be best," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters Tuesday at his company's Tokyo offices.The battle for supremacy in next-generation DVD technology had been fought for several years.

But Nishida said Warner Bros. Entertainment's decision to only release movies in the Blue-ray format made Toshiba's decision inevitable. "That had tremendous impact," he said. "If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win." But even with the format war over, a competitor has already started to emerge. Apple is now in the movie downloading business in the United States -- and it offers titles in HD, Abel said, adding it will soon be coming to Canada. Microsoft -- which had supported the HD DVD format -- is also in the movie distribution business through its Xbox gaming and home entertainment console. Abel said the Toshibas and Sonys would prefer movies to be distributed on a physical disc because they see more profit potential, but as with music, the world is changing. "It may not be developed to the point where it's viable to the average consumer, but early adopters and home theatre buffs are starting to take a look at it," he said.

Apple announced in January it has already sold seven million movies through I-tunes.