The war has ended: Toshiba says it will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters in Tokyo, "We concluded that a swift decision would be best."
This makes Blu-ray (backed by Sony & Panasonic and five major Hollywood movie studios) the winner in the battle over high-def.
Nishida cites the decision by Warner Bros. to release movie discs only in the Blu-ray as the pivotal battle. WalMart’s decision to go exclusively with BluRay and Netflix (the US rental king) also piled on the layers of inevitability.
Both HD DVD and Blu-ray deliver high-definition and many think the conservative Toshiba mainly lost to the Blu-Ray camp because of superior marketing (which includes alliances).
Toshiba says shipments of HD DVD to retailers will stop by end of March. But every war has victims: an estimated 1 million people already bought HD DVD machines and videos. Toshiba will continue to provide product support for the technology but these consumers now own phased-out technology.
While these consumers will need to re-invest in their high def future, pulling out will improve Toshiba's profitability between $370-$460 million a year.
The HD DVD camp included Microsoft, Intel Corp and NEC Corp. So you could also conclude the consumer electronics boys outmaneuvered the IT guys that in this war.
