Toshiba eyeing Blu-ray?
...but the soul still burns!
Perhaps a sign of the times, one-time rival to the Blu-ray Disc Association, Toshiba, hinted at embracing the Blu-ray format at a shareholders meeting last week.
“It makes no sense to decide not to enter the Blu-Ray market simply because we lost the DVD-format war,” said Toshiba Corp. President Atsutoshi Nishida, “We cannot change the fact that we lost, but we would like to keep our options open.”
Toshiba, one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world, was the main player behind HD-DVD, the format the ultimately lost to the Sony-backed Blu-ray format in Spring of last year. When the firm halted its HD-DVD operations, it announced that it had no intent on manufacturing Blu-ray players and would instead look towards digital distribution.
The striking reversal of positions could be attributed to significant growth in the Blu-ray marketplace, especially in the UK, where roughly 3.1 million Blu-ray discs have been sold since the beginning of the year. If Toshiba does decide to enter the marketplace, the competition could only spur the growth of the format and the already plummeting costs of players.
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