What is Toshiba's Mindset- Give Up???

[STI Jaguar]

So they are losing money by selling players at $99 when it costs them $400 at least. And they are getting dumped on by virtually every studio. Micro$oft, their bed buddy has shown true colors, and were using them all along, canceling the Ultimate Xbox 360 and refusing to mention them during CES, and now has publicly stated going alone on digital downloads (see Michael Bay).

So why is Toshiba still holding out?

Is there still money to be made with 2 studio support and maybe only 20% of the North American disk shares by February? And they know that they won't be selling much of anything these days.

I am calling that they will quit themselves before the end of February because it is better if they focus their money and resources somewhere else instead of a loser cow?

[JasonS]

The BDA doesn't need Toshiba to "win." They could never release a Blu-ray player and most people wouldn't notice or care. It's the studios everyone is concerned with. If Toshiba holds out, good for them they can lose even more money.

The ONLY reason they would want to hold out at this point would be to further stall the market so Blu-ray can't challenge Standard DVD since they still make tons of money off of those royalties.

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by STI Jaguar

So they are losing money by selling players at $99 when it costs them $400 at least. And they are getting dumped on by virtually every studio. Micro$oft, their bed buddy has shown true colors, and were using them all along, canceling the Ultimate Xbox 360 and refusing to mention them during CES, and now has publicly stated going alone on digital downloads (see Michael Bay).

So why is Toshiba still holding out?

Is there still money to be made with 2 studio support and maybe only 20% of the North American disk shares by February? And they know that they won't be selling much of anything these days.

I am calling that they will quit themselves before the end of February because it is better if they focus their money and resources somewhere else instead of a loser cow?

Considering that HD DVD and Bill Gates abandoned Toshiba at CES completely, I'd hang it up! Whats the point any more?

[Marcusarilius]

Considering that Toshiba manufactures HD hardware, they will get into the Blu game before long. This is what they do and have done for so many years. Time to drop the evil M$ schemes and stand on their own high quality mereits once again instead of being someone's dupe.

[davidPS3]

Those would have been some interesting conversations to over-hear between all the red camps this past weekend!

[mystiksuicide]

Originally Posted by JasonS

The ONLY reason they would want to hold out at this point would be to further stall the market so Blu-ray can't challenge Standard DVD since they still make tons of money off of those royalties.

I think every Blu-Ray owner should boycott toshiba products until they do what is right for the consumer.

You fought a war, dirty at times but you lost. Now show us you have class and bow out with dignity!

[Mr. Hanky]

My hunch is that Toshiba will officially concede after a time period has passed whereby unsold stock for hdvd players already in the channel has been "unloaded" for the most part. Whatever remains or cannot be liquidated will finally be written off (but their goal is to minimize this amount).

[OokieSpookie]

Toshiba, here this is for you...

[cartier]

The WB executives made it clear that they started hearing that people were holding off DVD purchases to see who would win the format war.

I think most Blu supporters stopped buying DVD a while ago. In addition I have friends and family who will get a Blu-ray player later in the year and decided back in November to stop buying DVDs and wait to buy Blu in the future.

Any company that does not support Blu hates consumers it is that simple and that is the message that has to be taken to the companies that refuse to join the Blu side. The war is over there is no reason to implement a scorched earth policy, unless you want to hurt everyone else, including those that originally supported you.

[cartier]

Originally Posted by Mr. Hanky

My hunch is that Toshiba will officially concede after a time period has passed whereby unsold stock for hdvd players already in the channel has been "unloaded" for the most part. Whatever remains or cannot be liquidated will finally be written off (but their goal is to minimize this amount).

Just put big stickers on them that say "up-converting DVD player" and move on.

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by cartier

Just put big stickers on them that say "up-converting DVD player" and move on.

slash cup holder.

[JohnGalt]

Originally Posted by STI Jaguar

So why is Toshiba still holding out?

It's too soon to expect a concession speech from them. They've lost the home HD optical market and they know it but they still have a responsibility to their stockholders to attempt to salvage something profitable from their involvement in HD DVD. My guess is that they'll pursue this in the computer space the same way Sony (annoyingly) includes Memory Stick slots on Vaios. They also need to take a deep breath and plan their "good enough" marketing campaign for DVD in an attempt to maximize their take on that technology during its forthcoming decline.

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by JohnGalt

It's too soon to expect a concession speech from them. They've lost the home HD optical market and they know it but they still have a responsibility to their stockholders to attempt to salvage something profitable from their involvement in HD DVD. My guess is that they'll pursue this in the computer space the same way Sony (annoyingly) includes Memory Stick slots on Vaios. They also need to take a deep breath and plan their "good enough" marketing campaign for DVD in an attempt to maximize their take on that technology during its forthcoming decline.

Don't forget this is the Olympic year and the recorder market is much bigger than the player market in Japan. Coupled with Japanese consumers' preference to have the same brand for all major equipments, their inability to provide a BD recorder is starting to hurt their TV sales as well.

The clock is ticking for Toshiba. Clearly they won't have enough time to come up with a BD recorder of their own in time for the Olympics, but there is a rumor that they might try OEM from some other manufacturer (even that would be an extremely tight schedule, as you can imagine).

enjoy
gandalf

[bhampton]

No matter how much they were losing selling the player for cheap,.. it is better then having to pay to recycle them.

Recycling the stuff costs money so they have to hope they can move some into customers hands.

I expect a FW update could enable Blu Ray players to play back HD DVDs but I don't think this will happen soon if ever. It's better if HD DVD is forgotten completely with the quickness.

Sure,.. Theres a million players out there but they do make good upconverters and there are tons of those out there. Think about all the computers from last year,.. there's far more than a million of those and they are all obsolete now. Most can still be used for some things.

-Brian

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I expect a FW update could enable Blu Ray players to play back HD DVDs but I don't think this will happen soon if ever.

I don't have a link handy but it's been said on this forum that this is a physical impossibility, not a software issue.

[Go Blu]

I forsee another firesale...only this time we'll call it what it is...

a clearance sale.

[radagast]

Why is Toshiba holding out?


1) Denial
2) Still believes TL-51 can turn the tide.

[hc666]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

I think every Blu-Ray owner should boycott toshiba products until they do what is right for the consumer.

You fought a war, dirty at times but you lost. Now show us you have class and bow out with dignity!

If it wasn't for Toshiba there would be no BOGOs or quick price reductions on the Bluray side.

Also, they make that chipset in your PS3 for the million'th time.

[JTK]

Publicly at least, their mindset continues to be mind bogglingly bogged down in religious zeal-like Red Kool Aid. Publicly they just insist they're going to keep this thing going until the bitter damned end and I think they need to be stopped some way, somehow, hopefully starting by their own stockholders from the inside.