Toshiba is sending out an official press release as confirmation.
Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review
of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop,
manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made
following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to
provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba
HD DVD products.HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable
price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital
convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will
continue to progress."We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing
the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision
will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of
Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more
importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high
definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to
use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence
a reality."Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of
technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content.
These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk
drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption
technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around
strategic progress in these convergence technologies. Toshiba will begin to
reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for
cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to
end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and
games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer
requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs
with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future
market demand.This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard
DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and
recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the
DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with
some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum
optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.Toshiba also
intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with
Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios,
Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT
industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible
collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing
the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.
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