2008 Woodie Awards
Format war over: confusion still reigns
Technophile
Jonathan Harrop
Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: Life & Style
It's over. It's finally over.
Toshiba, the one and only manufacturer of HD DVD products in the world, held a press conference yesterday that confirmed what everyone following it had assumed: They will cease making and marketing HD DVD players by March of this year.
During the press conference, Toshiba's CEO, Nishida-san, told reporters the single biggest factor was Warner's move to Blu-Ray in January. "We were in a fairly good place until last December or January," he said.
Nishida then gave out the total official sales numbers for HD DVD players. Sixty thousand players in the U.S., of which three hundred thousand were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. One hundred thousand units were sold in Europe, and ten thousand players and twenty thousand recorders in Japan.
Seven hundred and thirty thousand units worldwide.
The Playstation 3, which is the "cheapest" and most flexible Blu-Ray player out there, has sold 10.49 million units, according to Sony.
There are currently no plans for Toshiba to produce a Blu-Ray player, Nishida said.
Aside from the official replacement for DVDs, something occurred at work on Monday that made me rethink this. An older gentleman walked into the store and asked if we sell standard VCRs. My coworker, Shaun, politely told him that no. Like most retailers, we only sell the DVD/VCR combination players, he said.
This isn't that spectacular. People who had VCRs when they bought a DVD player have two units, and why have two DVD playing devices if you don't need them?
The most surprising part of this scenario was not that he wanted a VCR (we usually send people to pawn shops if they simply must need one). The part that made my jaw drop as I listened to the conversation was the following words, issued forth from the older man's mouth.
"What's a DVD?"
I could see the expression of shock, horror, confusion, and pure bewilderment pass over Shaun's face. In that order and then simultaneously.
Toshiba, the one and only manufacturer of HD DVD products in the world, held a press conference yesterday that confirmed what everyone following it had assumed: They will cease making and marketing HD DVD players by March of this year.
During the press conference, Toshiba's CEO, Nishida-san, told reporters the single biggest factor was Warner's move to Blu-Ray in January. "We were in a fairly good place until last December or January," he said.
Nishida then gave out the total official sales numbers for HD DVD players. Sixty thousand players in the U.S., of which three hundred thousand were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. One hundred thousand units were sold in Europe, and ten thousand players and twenty thousand recorders in Japan.
Seven hundred and thirty thousand units worldwide.
The Playstation 3, which is the "cheapest" and most flexible Blu-Ray player out there, has sold 10.49 million units, according to Sony.
There are currently no plans for Toshiba to produce a Blu-Ray player, Nishida said.
Aside from the official replacement for DVDs, something occurred at work on Monday that made me rethink this. An older gentleman walked into the store and asked if we sell standard VCRs. My coworker, Shaun, politely told him that no. Like most retailers, we only sell the DVD/VCR combination players, he said.
This isn't that spectacular. People who had VCRs when they bought a DVD player have two units, and why have two DVD playing devices if you don't need them?
The most surprising part of this scenario was not that he wanted a VCR (we usually send people to pawn shops if they simply must need one). The part that made my jaw drop as I listened to the conversation was the following words, issued forth from the older man's mouth.
"What's a DVD?"
I could see the expression of shock, horror, confusion, and pure bewilderment pass over Shaun's face. In that order and then simultaneously.
Be the first to comment on this story