Toshiba throws in towel on HD DVD
That didn’t take long, certainly less than the Betamax/VHS war. Toshiba is giving up on their HD DVD business, according to Reuters.
“We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business,” said the anonymous inside source at Toshiba. Japanese public broadcaster NHK had earlier reported Toshiba was closing up shop on the high-def format. The source said an official announcement would be made early this week.
Reuters called the Toshiba public relations office in Tokyo and nobody answered the phone. That’s not a good way to answer the public.
I do have to give props to the company for just ending it instead of prolonging things further.
Looks like they finally realized that their marketing and promotions suck. From the Reuters article:
“Marketing was a weak point for Toshiba. We learned a lot from HD DVD. Strengthening marketing will continue to be an issue for us going forward,” the source said.
laughable…
“marketing” was the only thing keeping it alive….that and the “promotions” (fire sales)
This is such huge news. CNN, 60 Minutes, New York Times, AP, everyone is running this story … and not just wire news. HD DVD group, Toshiba, Universal and Paramount aren’t returning phone calls to any of them.
Even if These companies try to come back the damage this story caused to HD DVD is immense.
Sounds like the official announcement is coming in a matter of hours.
Toshiba has a press release scheduled for 5PM Tokyo Time. That’s 12pm PST tonight. Where it’s being reported they will announce pulling all players/recorder from the market in a matter of weeks.
But I agree Wesley. HD-DVD’s promotions have sucked all through this fight. Another then about 3 commercials they didn’t really have much to say. Firesales were their main weapon and that only scared other CEs away from releasing HD-DVD products backing them into a corner to go it alone.
Toshiba Press release:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr1903.htm
Thanks for the link Koba!