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Posted by Allan on 10/03/98 11:26
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/01/toshiba_hd-dvd_delay/
Toshiba may not launch HD DVD products until 2006, breaking its
previously stated deadline for the introduction of the technology.
Toshiba and other HD DVD backers have for some time pegged late 2005
as the launch point for the next-generation, blue-laser optical disc
format in the US and Japan.
However, a spokeswoman at the company's Tokyo HQ today revealed that
for Toshiba at least, zero-hour may now come in 2006, Reuters reports.
Toshiba may launch in Japan this year, the spokeswoman hinted, but it
certainly seems unlikely that the planned end-of-year US debut will
now not take place.
Other HD DVD supporters may still choose to ship in 2005, but with
Toshiba leading the HD DVD promotional activity, it's hard to see
other firms failing to follow suit.
"We are now in talks with Hollywood studios and large-scale retailers
to seek the most effective timing of the launch and best way to
launch," the spokeswoman told the news agency.
That language suggests either the technology has slipped to the point
where its appearance would come too close to the US' Holiday sales
period - possibly even past it - to justify the big promotional
efforts launching the format will inevitably require, or that said
parties no longer believe consumers are ready for the technology.
Certainly HD DVD looked like launching well ahead of rival format
Blu-ray Disc (BD). The BD camp has never announced a formal launch
timeframe, but comments from Sony have suggested a Q1 2006 debut, most
likely toward the end of that period, when the BD-equipped PlayStation
3 is scheduled to ship in Japan.
PS3's US debut is reckoned to be some way after that time, as per past
PlayStation launches, so we could easily be looking at Q3 2006 before
BD is launched as a consumer content format in the US. So HD DVD still
has a fairly good lead on its rival, and with that in mind Toshiba and
co. may well have decided they don't need to rush the launch just for
the sake of coming to market first.
Any delay also gives both camps further opportunity to discuss merging
their favoured formats and averting a war no one wants. Sony paved the
way for such negotiations earlier this year, but the parties were
unable to reach an agreement, and that was that. More recently,
however, we've seen reports noting various parties' statements that an
agreement seems unlikely. If the talks proved unsuccessful in June,
why are people still moaning about a failure to reach a compromise? We
suspect the talks are ongoing, with both camps monitoring consumer
reactions to HD DVD and BD developments in the hope of gaining some
advantage.
Any agreement to unite the two formats will require one of the two
hardware formats to be ditched, retaining only the data structure and
other refinements. Both have advantages at the hardware level: BD has
a considerable capacity lead, while HD DVD has the benefit of greater
simplicity.
"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game
because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from
-- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
- Neil Stephenson, _Cryptonomicon_
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