Toshiba to concede defeat in DVD-format wars
Province
Blu-ray discs, now considered the winner in high-definition-format war for next-generation DVDs, are prominently displayed in a Taipei video shop yesterday. Photograph by : Reuters
TOKYO — An impending end to a format war over next-generation DVDs boosted shares in both victorious Sony, in the Blu-ray corner, and Toshiba, in the losing HD-DVD camp, yesterday as consumers cheered an end to confusion over which discs will carry high-definition movies.
Shares in Toshiba Corp., reported to be axing its HD DVD format, jumped nearly six per cent as analysts praised a move to cut its losses. Sony Corp. shares rose one per cent.
The Blu-ray win means consumers seeking sharper movies on high-definition DVDs no longer have to choose between rival incompatible formats and run the risk of being stuck with a 21st-century equivalent of Betamax — Sony’s videotape technology that lost out to VHS in the 1980s. Having one format should help accelerate the shift to the new technology in the $24-billion-US home DVD market.
Toshiba to continue putting effort into this,” said Koichi Ogawa, a chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments. “It needs to cut its losses and focus its resources on promising businesses.”
Both DVDs can carry high-definition movies, but growing support from Hollywood and big U.S. retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores has given Blu-ray a crushing lead in the war. Overall sales have so far been small as shoppers, faced with rival machines that played only one type of disc or the other, have held back.
The defection from HD DVD in January of Warner Brothers and its huge film library brought the tally of Hollywood movies in the Blu-ray camp to a commanding 70 per cent.
Recent sales figures show many consumers had already written off HD DVD, which was also backed by Microsoft Corp.
Blu-ray accounted for 93 per cent of next-generation DVD hardware sales in North America in the week after Warner’s announcement in January, data from the NPD Group showed.
Blu-ray recorders from Sony, Matsushita and Sharp made up about 96 per cent of the Japanese market in the last quarter of last year, said BCN, another research house.
© The Vancouver Province 2008