Toshiba Comments On Warner’s Blu-ray Move

Posted on Friday, January 4, 2008 by MegaZone

Toshiba didn’t waste any time responding to Warner’s move to drop HD DVD.

My summary: “Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Damn that hurts. How are we going to salvage this? Stall for time.”

It actually sounds a bit peevish in the first paragraph, almost “How dare you do this?! I thought we were friends!” kind of tone. And a hint of veiled threat with the mention of contracts between the companies for HD DVD support. And then a reference to the ‘significant momentum’ HD DVD gained in 2007 – sure, which still significantly lags behind the even greater gains by BD.

I think Toshiba is really shaken by this, no matter what they end up with as their final stance. It will be hard not to gloat in person at their booth at CES. For the past several years I’ve had their booth reps pitch HD DVD to me and I kept telling them I wasn’t interested and that BD was going to win anyway.

EDIT: And now the HD DVD Promotional Group has chimed in too.

The full press release:

Jan 4, 2008 18:04 ET

Toshiba’s Comment on Announcement from Warner Bros. Entertainment of Its Exclusive Support for Blu-ray Disc Format

TOKYO, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ — Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.’ decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together to help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to define and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.

We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as other regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007.

We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer.

   Press Contact
   Corporate Communications Office
   Keisuke Ohmori
   +81-3-3457-2105
   http://www.toshiba.co.jp/contact/media.htm

Source: Toshiba

CONTACT: Keisuke Ohmori, Corporate Communications Office of Toshiba,
+81-3-3457-2105

Web site: http://www.toshiba.co.jp/

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • Dean

    Toshiba should just file for bankruptcy and close down because of all the stupid business decisions they make. They refused to primarily manufacture LCD tv’s at first (Sony/Sharp/Samsung did) and when they realized consumers preferred them overall to Plasma/DLP they jumped ship. This is why they are lagging behind Sony, Samsung, Sharp and LG in LCD tv sales. Then there is the HD-DVD, the dumbest thing they did was actually call the format “HD-DVD”. It’s to long to pronounce and there is no “short” version for the name. You can’t say “HD” because that refers to “High Definition” and can mean television programming, televisions or Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray on the other hand sounds sexy and can be called “Blu”, “B-ray” or “BD”

    Toshiba should just admit defeat and save themselves the humiliation because NO ONE is going to buy their players or disc’s now.