Toshiba 'disappointed' over Warner Bros. decision
LAS VEGAS--"Disappointed" probably isn't a strong enough word to describe when a major focus of your business plan and the highlight of your Consumer Electronics Show pitch is derailed two days before by one of your former partners.
As the most prominent backer of the HD DVD high-definition video format, Toshiba's press conference at CES this morning drew a lot of interest among the tech press, mostly out of morbid curiosity. What could it say after Warner Bros. announced Friday it would exclusively back rival Blu-ray, after the studio had played it neutral up until now?
Toshiba didn't waste any time addressing the 800-pound gorilla in the room. President and chief executive of Toshiba America's consumer division, Akio Ozaka, took the stage to lament the studio's announcement despite strong sales of HD DVD players in the last quarter of 2007.
"Unit sales of HD DVD in Q4 were the strongest yet. Therefore we were surprised by Warner Bros. announcement that it plans to abandon HD DVD later this year," said Ozaka. "We were particularly disappointed this decision was made in spite of the momentum HD DVD has gained in this market."
Toshiba vice president of marketing for digital audio and video products Jodi Salley was even more somber.
"As you can imagine, this is a tough day for me," she said as she took the stage. "I fully expected to come here this morning to share with you the successes of the last year of HD DVD, (but) the events of the last few days have shifted the focus of my comments."
Instead of announcing a fourth-generation HD DVD player as expected prior to Warner Bros. announcement on Friday, Toshiba took the opportunity to simply reaffirm its faith in the format, and point out features like Web connectivity and the presence of Ethernet ports on every player, which Blu-ray does not have.
"It is difficult to read pundits declaring HD DVD dead...but we've been declared dead before," Sally said.
Despite that sense of optimism, she didn't offer any details on what Toshiba's next move will be.
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Sure glad I'm not the one who put on the striped jacket, straw hat and taped my cane doing the song and dance.
--- CHAS
Sure glad I'm not the one who put on the striped jacket, straw hat and taped my cane doing the song and dance.
--- CHAS
Until they stop making regular DVD's, I'll keep living in the past - where it's a lot cheaper.
Until they stop making regular DVD's, I'll keep living in the past - where it's a lot cheaper.
Who pays these people?
Who pays these people?
1. They need to attack Blu Ray by jumping onboard the dual-format player, and NOW.
2. They need to offer a rebate system so that older HD-DVD players can upgrade for a lower cost than the retail price.
3. They need to offer a year-long price advantage to their disks to make it only 125% above the cost of a standard DVD.
4. They need to open up the entire library of movies and push those movies in the new HD-DVD format for $10 each, in $50 bundles.
Now, HD-DVD's war is not just with Blu Ray, but with the standard DVD. They need to convert us DVD people over to HD-DVD and not wait until Blu Ray becomes the defacto standard.
1. They need to attack Blu Ray by jumping onboard the dual-format player, and NOW.
2. They need to offer a rebate system so that older HD-DVD players can upgrade for a lower cost than the retail price.
3. They need to offer a year-long price advantage to their disks to make it only 125% above the cost of a standard DVD.
4. They need to open up the entire library of movies and push those movies in the new HD-DVD format for $10 each, in $50 bundles.
Now, HD-DVD's war is not just with Blu Ray, but with the standard DVD. They need to convert us DVD people over to HD-DVD and not wait until Blu Ray becomes the defacto standard.
I think Sony and Toshiba have been foolish. Their technologies are in competition with each, but more importantly DVD. That is not to mention downloads, IPTV, on-demand, and the PVR/DVR.
The only solution to this mess is that the Koreans step in and Samsung and LG clean up with combo-players.
However, Sony as a company is now doomed. Nothing can save its moribound consumer electronics division. They were dethroned by Samsung about 5 years ago. The beginning of the end for them was almost 20 years ago when they decided to buy a record company and a film studio.
Also if you look at the Video Games business. They had a stranglehold on the fifth generation with the Playstation. A stranglehold on the sixth generation with the Playastation 2. In the current seventh generation they have been eclipsed by the Xbox360 and Wii. The PSP is now redundant while the DS is very strong. How strong is the VAIO PC business? Also they just sold the Semi-Conductor business to Toshiba.
We don't even need to mention the failed mobile phone venture with Ericsson or the comatose MP3 Player business. Or the failed connect.com service.
In fact the former King of the CRT world is only still in the TV business because of the s-lcd Ltd venture run by archrival Samsung in Korea.
Sony has no future. Sony is in a desparate state and although I'm an Englishman, they have totally imcompenent and arrogant management in the shape of Stringer and Harrison.
Maybe if they got rid of SonyBMG, sold Sony Pictures, sold the insurance and credit card businesses in Japan and fixed their rotten CE business....
I think Sony and Toshiba have been foolish. Their technologies are in competition with each, but more importantly DVD. That is not to mention downloads, IPTV, on-demand, and the PVR/DVR.
The only solution to this mess is that the Koreans step in and Samsung and LG clean up with combo-players.
However, Sony as a company is now doomed. Nothing can save its moribound consumer electronics division. They were dethroned by Samsung about 5 years ago. The beginning of the end for them was almost 20 years ago when they decided to buy a record company and a film studio.
Also if you look at the Video Games business. They had a stranglehold on the fifth generation with the Playstation. A stranglehold on the sixth generation with the Playastation 2. In the current seventh generation they have been eclipsed by the Xbox360 and Wii. The PSP is now redundant while the DS is very strong. How strong is the VAIO PC business? Also they just sold the Semi-Conductor business to Toshiba.
We don't even need to mention the failed mobile phone venture with Ericsson or the comatose MP3 Player business. Or the failed connect.com service.
In fact the former King of the CRT world is only still in the TV business because of the s-lcd Ltd venture run by archrival Samsung in Korea.
Sony has no future. Sony is in a desparate state and although I'm an Englishman, they have totally imcompenent and arrogant management in the shape of Stringer and Harrison.
Maybe if they got rid of SonyBMG, sold Sony Pictures, sold the insurance and credit card businesses in Japan and fixed their rotten CE business....
I don't understand if the market was growing, why they can't continue to support BOTH formats? Why are they forcing us to go to Blu-Ray?
I've never been more upset at a company...
- I'm disappointed in Warner too
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by ericnn24
January 6, 2008 10:36 PM PST
- ...having just bought an HD DVD player during the holiday, then a few weeks later this bomb is dropped.
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See all 120 Comments >>I don't understand if the market was growing, why they can't continue to support BOTH formats? Why are they forcing us to go to Blu-Ray?
I've never been more upset at a company...