No end in sight for battle of next-gen formats
You might have thought the format war was done and dusted when Warner Bros. switched exclusively to Blu-Ray. If not then, you certainly thought it when reports surfaced suggesting that Paramount would soon follow Warner on the road to all things Blu.
The format war has never been quite that simple though. Since last week's ominous developments for the HD-DVD group, it has hit back with statements of its own. Firstly, Paramount and Universal, two studios exclusively backing the HD-DVD format have come forward and stated they plan to continue to support the Toshiba format.
Following that, Toshiba has today issued a press release slashing prices of its HD-DVD range. Toshiba state in terms of next-gen formats, HD-DVD achieved "approximately 50 percent market share in 2007". We're not so sure about that ourselves but we're more than used to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray firing out sales figures at every opportunity.
Citing good promotion-based holiday sales as a reason, Toshiba has decided to lower the prices of its HD-DVD players and states "Effective on January 13, 2008 the MSRP of the entry-model HD-A3 will be $149.99, the HD-A30, with 1080p output, $199.99, and the high-end HD-A35, $299.99".
Yoshi Uchiyama, Group Vice President Digital A/V Group says "Consumer sales this holiday season have proven that the consumer awareness of the HD DVD format has been elevated and pricing is the most critical determinant in consumers' purchase decision of the next generation HD DVD technology. The value HD DVD provides to the consumer simply cannot be ignored."
With Toshiba slashing its prices, it looks as though the format war will continue to linger on for some time yet. Sorry folks.
Official press release: Toshiba Deploys New HD DVD Marketing Initiatives Based on Strong Fourth Quarter Unit Sales
