Blu-Ray Dominates, HD DVD Discontinued!

The High Definition format war between
Blu-Ray & HD DVD disc has finally ended.

And the winner is BLU-RAY.



Here are the full press release by Toshiba, thanks to ComingSoon.net.

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.