Toshiba launches world's first HD DVD player

Japan’s second largest electronics maker plans to sell 600,000 - 700,000 HD-DVD players in the fiscal year 2006-2007.

3 April 2006
TOKYO, JAPAN

Japanese electronics maker Toshiba took its high definition DVD players to stores in Japan on Friday, triggering another war with the Blu-ray format backers Sony and Matsushita.

Toshiba has thus become the first firm to roll out next-generation optical disc players.

Toshiba’s new HD DVD machines will compete with market rival Sony’s Blu-ray technology.

Toshiba’s HD DVD player has been priced at 110,000 yen or $940 in Japan.

Sony is also on the job to offer Blu-ray players in US by July this year. The Sony players will be slightly costlier at $1000.

The new offerings are a welcome development in the otherwise slowing home video market.

But Toshiba and Sony’s inability to come into a consensus on a unified format is likely to hit the segment in the long run, analysts said.

They compared the present format wars with the VHS-Betamax war of 1970s in the video cassette player segment, which had caused confusion among consumers on which format to choose.

Toshiba Corporate Senior Vice President Yoshihide Fujii said the need for a next-generation optical disc players arises as customers are increasingly asking for them in tune with the spread of high-definition TVs.

Toshiba's HD DVD players will debut in US market by April. Toshiba aims to offer the HD-XA1 and HD-A1 players in the United States for $799 and $499. Japan's second-largest electronics conglomerate plans to sell 600,000 to 700,000 of the players this fiscal year 2006-07. Toshiba also plans to launch HD DVD-compatible PCs in the April-June quarter.