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Lately, bad news have been clouding the skies of HD DVD one
after the other, but so far Toshiba has
seemed ready to support its embattled format in the bitter fight with Sony’s
Blu Ray.
Since Warner Bros’ announcement in early January, one by one
the allies of HD DVD have left the boat.
Though, Toshiba decided to fight back by slashing the price
of its HD DVD players and investing millions of dollars in promotional and
marketing efforts.
But lately the company has started to reconsider its
position, according to some anonymous sources quoted by The
Hollywood Reporter.
So far no official decision has been taken, but when asked
by The Hollywood Reporter, Jodi Sally, VP of marketing for Toshiba America
Consumer Products, admitted that "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."
It seems like Toshiba is losing a lot of money due to its
decision to cut the prices, and a source close to the HD DVD alliance claimed
that an official announcement will come in a matter of weeks.
Earlier this week, Netflix and Best Buy have decided to
support Sony’s Blu Ray as the next generation optical format.
Their decision is just the latest in a series of fatal blows
received by the HD DVD format since the beginning of 2008.
Last month in Gartner's Semiconductor DQ Report, the analyst
Hiroyuki Shimizu said that Blu Ray will be the real champion until the end of
the year.
"Gartner believes that Toshiba's price-cutting may
prolong HD DVD's life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will
inflict fatal damage on the format. Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008,
Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be
over”, he wrote.
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