Variety and Reuters are reporting that Toshiba has officially given up on HD-DVD, now leaving the market open to Sony-backed Blu-ray. Quoting from a Toshiba release, Variety says:
“As a result of recent market developments, the company has decided to discontinue sales and marketing of HD DVD players. Accordingly, Toshiba will begin to cease shipments of its HD DVD products to retail channels,” it said in the statement.
Toshiba has no plans to produce Blu-ray players, says the Reuters article:
Investors are now waiting to see if and how Toshiba will get access to Blu-ray technology for its home electronics business.
"It's going to have to buy the technology from elsewhere or pay Sony or Matsushita for the licenses," said Tetsuro Miyachi, senior portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Investments Japan. "But the company saw that this is still better than just continuing on with losses of tens of billions of yen each year."
CEO Nishida said Toshiba has "absolutely no plans" to make or sell Blu-ray players.
