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]
