Toshiba was primary force behind the optical format HD DVD but had to witness the victory of the Blu-ray format, support by Sony and other major companies. Toshiba has since the defeat of HD DVD been quiet on the optical storage market but it is finally starting to make some moves and there are indications that it will launch its first Blu-ray products this year. Toshiba took a serious beating both economically and PR-wise with the HD DVD defeat, but at least it has a healthy view on its current position.
Toshiba VP Atsutoshi Nishida that left his post on June 24th made the following statement during a company meeting.
“It makes no sense to decide not to enter the Blu-Ray market simply because we lost the DVD-format war. We cannot change the fact that we lost, but we would like to keep our options open”
Toshiba lost about $3.6 billion last fiscal year and since the HD DVD defeat it has focused on the DVD market but now that Blu-ray is becoming serious motion it looks like even Toshiba will join the crowd with Blu-ray products for the Holiday shopping, at least in Japan.
In the first half of 2009 the sales of Blu-ray media has increased with 91 percent, year-to-year. At the same time, 25 percent more Blu-ray players were sold.
