Toshiba succumbs in HD DVD war

In the wake of a business review, Tokyo-headquartered conglomerate Toshiba has announced that it will cease to make its high definition (HD) DVDs, in a move that hands ‘industry standard’ victory to Sony’s rival Blu-ray format.

Toshiba is to cease production of its HD DVD players and recorders in a move allowing it to hone its efforts on other products. The HD DVD format has suffered because major US film studios have backed the Blu-ray format being developed by electronics giant Sony.

Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida said it was ‘an agonising decision for me, but I thought that if we kept running this business it would have grave ramifications for the management of our company’. He added, ‘We made a quick decision, judging that there was no way of winning the competition.’

For Toshiba, the final straw came in January, when Warner Bros joined a number of other film studios, including Twentieth Century Fox, MGM and Walt Disney, in deciding to release its films on Blu-ray only. This move demonstrated that, in this highly competitive market, it is the format with the most content that eventually wins out.

Moreover, the globe’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, recently said it would sell HD discs only in the Blu-ray format in its 4,000 US stores. While Toshiba has succumbed in this particular instance, the end of the race for HD domination is expected to provide the industry with a shot in the arm, since it ends uncertainty for consumers.