Toshiba: No plans to adopt Blu-ray

[bgstewar]

This was surprising:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/t...adopt-blu-ray/

[Phillysports8982]

Originally Posted by bgstewar

This was surprising:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/t...adopt-blu-ray/

just like they had "no comment" or plans to drop hd dvd over the weekend right?

[Stormkeep]

Originally Posted by bgstewar

This was surprising:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/t...adopt-blu-ray/

All that means is that they have nothing official to announce at this point in time. I would think you guys would be catching on to how that works by now...

[chris gerhard]

I don't know if Toshiba joins the Blu-ray side now. The profit margins are low on Blu-ray hardware and there are about a dozen manufacturers already. I would put the chances at 50/50 that Toshiba announces a Blu-ray player in 2008. More profitable business ventures will likely be the focus, HD DVD was a huge debacle for Toshiba.

Chris

[Thulsadoom]

actually... you can't blame them for not bothering. The production costs of setting up to create BR players and/or combo players may just not seem worth it to them, considering how many companies are already involved in BR, and finding it of limited value because of the PS3. It might just not be cost effective any time soon. They may simply be waiting to see if BR becomes mainstream enough, or just avoid it all together.

I very much doubt they'd ignore any possible future formats, though they may be reluctant to try and pioneer any, as the main manufacturer any time soon.

[Ryoken]

Originally Posted by Stormkeep

All that means is that they have nothing official to announce at this point in time. I would think you guys would be catching on to how that works by now...

Well, the japanese quote was surprisingly direct (according to av watch):
「現時点で、BDをベースにしたプレーヤー/レコーダを生産し、販売するという計画は全くありません」
about: "At the current point, there are absolutly no plans to produduce and sell players/recorders based on BD."

So, it's a bit more than a "no comment", more a "definitely not yet (but perhaps sometime in the future)".

[Lateralus85]

Hey, did Toshiba say that they have no reached a decision in dropping their format just under a week ago? So how much does this mean?

[bowl-o-rama]

Yeah well I don't think I'd want to focus many resources yet in Blu-ray after losing hundreds of millions of dollars in HD-DVD. If and when Blu-ray gets up to around the 10% market share with DVD, I see Toshiba jumping.

[ma99]

Toshiba have to make BD players, if they don't they will be at a major disadvantage in the consumer electronics market.

The likes of Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, etc. are all bundling BD players and PS3s with their expensive HDTVs. If Toshiba doesn't have a BD player to bundle with their HDTVs, then sales of their HDTVs will likely suffer. Bundling just unconverting DVD players isn't going to be good enough.

They could just pay off Best Buy, etc. to bundle a PS3 or some other manufactures BD player with their TVs, but that won't look good.

Perhaps they will partner with one of the other CE companies like Pioneer or Panasonic and simply rebrand their BD players as Toshibas. These sort of partnerships are fairly common in the CE industry (Sony + Smasung in LCDs, Sony + Toshiba in Cell chips, etc.).

One area where Toshiba will definitely suffer if they don't include BD drives is the PC laptop market. If Toshiba laptops come with only DVD or HD-DVD drives, while Sony, Dell, HP, Apple, etc. laptops come with BD drives, Toshiba will lose lots of PC sales. But then they can just use LG BD drives, they don't need to make it themselves.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Tosh will have to adopt BD, there's just no other avenue for them. They can't compete in the download market, as that is already fractured enough between Apple, Microsoft, VUDU and the cable companies.

I expect they will have a BD player on sale at a bargain price by the end of the year.

[renleg]

They do not need to rush into making a BD player. They will do well to wait and see where the market goes before investing in producing a BD machine.

At this point, and for Toshiba, there is not $millions to be made from being a BD manafacturer. (Unless of course they can produce a superfast, supercheap player!)

[bomba]

Weren't BD player sales something like $7 million the week after Warners announcements? Its not *that* small a market. The US standalone market could reach 1/2 billion this year.

Not huge, but consider that 2009 will see it worth billions and that they need to jump in sometime...the more experience the cheaper to produce and more refined their players will be *shrug*

[BuckeyeStar]

Their concession press release did sound an awful lot like they are planning to go straight for digital downloads next. They talk about flash drives and hard drives and "digital convergence".

[outherealone]

Toshiba obviously believes in HDM or they wouldn't have created HD DVD. They will obviously develop a Blu-Ray player, how can anyone doubt that? There is probably one (or two) already in development.

[ma99]

I think what everyone is missing is not the size of the BD market, rather it is the Halo effect.

Imagine Joe Soap walks into Best Buy looking for a 40" HDTV and he can buy a Toshiba 40" or a Sony Bravia 40" bundled with a PS3 for only a little more then the Tosh, guess which one he will buy?

Bundling is a major part of the HDTV market, if Tosh doesn't bundle BD palyers with it's HDTVs, then the sales of its HDTVs will also suffer.