Sony invites Toshiba and Microsoft to join Blu-ray camp

[sohjonn]

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/ne...ay-group.phtml

Let's end the format war with hugs and kisses
by Stuart Miles

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5 September 2007 9:00 GMT - Sony Pictures has openly invited Toshiba and Microsoft to join the Blu-ray Disc Association.

The comment above comes from Don Eklund, executive vice president of advanced technologies and Rich Marty, vice president, new business development, after Pocket-lint asked which companies they would most like to have in the Association, following the announcement from Acer that it would start to sell PCs with Blu-ray drives.

"We would love to have Toshiba and Microsoft on board," said Don Eklund in an interview with Pocket-lint at IFA in Berlin, Germany.

The IFA event saw an official announcement from Toshiba and the HD DVD Promotion Group about the lowering of prices for both HD DVD stand-alone players as well as for laptops with HD DVD drives, trying to fight the format war on price points.

Eklund and Marty questioned Toshiba's pricing strategy; "Tosh can't keep dropping prices much more," said Eklund. "It maybe a strategy for fighting a format war, but for us it has to be profitable."

According to the vice president of technologies he'd: "Never thought the price was an issue... when it comes to investing in a state of the art entertainment system with HD-Ready television and surround sound system, having to spend a bit extra to get Blu-ray, we feel, isn't going to drive customers away. It's the bigger picture we are looking at."

That apparent naivety is why, according to the Blu-ray camp, players are considerably more expensive than their HD DVD counterparts, because they have to be profitable, and it seems that DVD no longer offered that kind of attractive bottom line.

"The DVD format was good, but profitability only lasted for a couple of years before there was no money to be had in the hardware market," said Marty. "We believe consumers are smart enough to realise the benefits and pay the extra accordingly."

When questioned on the internet, and the potential for the format war to be eclipsed entirely by movie downloads, sounding like music execs from the turn of the last century, both Eklund and Marty dismissed the potential of the internet:

"People aren't interested in downloading videos at the moment. The internet is a good way of delivering music but not video," said Eklund. "Blu-ray has a good 8 to 10 years before the internet catches up."

And as for how consumers are supposed to get around the Dreamworks and Paramount shift to HD DVD? "Buy it on DVD," Marty suggested - before quickly adding that Blu-ray players have upscaling features so you can still get the most out of the picture quality.

[Damiesmallz]

Interesting, wonder if they will respond.

[scott87]

lol imagined if they joined!one can only think!! i like that little bit at the nd jsut buy it on dvd

[Thundercrash07]

[powerSURG]

Originally Posted by Thundercrash07

lol

Interesting indeed

[MatrixS2000]

1 - Well considering the Toshiba just spent another $150M to remove Paramount releases from Blu Ray owners, I don't think they will join.

2 - IMO Microsoft is not interested in ending the format war, they are interested in dragging it out, so I doubt they would join either.

[powerSURG]

Originally Posted by MatrixS2000

1 - Well considering the Toshiba just spent another $150M to remove Paramount releases from Blu Ray owners, I don't think they will join.

2 - IMO Microsoft is not interested in ending the format war, they are interested in dragging it out, so I doubt they would join either.

Exactly. I mean really, has anybody tried to figure out why M$ is even in this war? And why did they join the dud? Wouldn't a computer based company want to choose the media which provides more storage space? All clues lead to one outcome, kill hd media

[Need0fMany]

Will Toshiba\Microsoft accept the invite? not for another 18 months at least...

As for the comment about buying Paramount\Dreamworks on DVD in the meantime, I would rather say: only rent it on DVD for now if you must; instead spend your money on other Blu-ray movies

As for Thundercrash07, LOL, your sig made me think of South Park, I was picturing someone walking out of a store with a HD-DVD disk and then a South Park character yelling at him: "You killed my kitten! You bastard!"

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by MatrixS2000

1 - Well considering the Toshiba just spent another $150M to remove Paramount releases from Blu Ray owners, I don't think they will join.

2 - IMO Microsoft is not interested in ending the format war, they are interested in dragging it out, so I doubt they would join either.

My thoughts exactly.

[Maximus]

This is clearly something we can't take seriously. Don Eklund was obviously making a tongue-in-cheek comment.

[Footloose301]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

This is clearly something we can't take seriously. Don Eklund was obviously making a tongue-in-cheek comment.

Exactly.

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by Thundercrash07

lol iM into that little popcorn man!

[lch]

maybe sony also provide 'incentives' for toshiba to ditch hd ?

[Blu-Style]

That´s to easy to be true...

Microsoft has already enough money.

dammit MS!
join the damn BDA and make ALL consumers happy and end this war...

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

This is clearly something we can't take seriously. Don Eklund was obviously making a tongue-in-cheek comment.

Personally I don't want either of those two companies to be involved in Blu-ray. They both suck.

[w_tanoto]

No! they would never joined. Imagine HD DUD fans getting really pissed off by Toshiba / M$ decision.

I'd laugh if this happened.

FYI, ACER HAS RELEASED BD NOTEBOOK SINCE December 2006

[JTK]

Originally Posted by radagast

Personally I don't want either of those two companies to be involved in Blu-ray. They both suck.

I do simply because I want this to end and I want BD to win. It's not like you'd ever have to buy any of their products.

Anyways, hasn't it always kind of been a given that both sides leave an offer on the table of "Join us and we can end this anytime you want" anyways?

I'm not sure how much real news there is here.

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by JTK

I do simply because I want this to end and I want BD to win. It's not like you'd ever have to buy any of their products.

Anyways, hasn't it always kind of been a given that both sides leave an offer on the table of "Join us and we can end this anytime you want" anyways?

I'm not sure how much real news there is here.

lets just hope its tosh trying to work something out and not our beloved bluray!

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by MatrixS2000

2 - IMO Microsoft is not interested in ending the format war, they are interested in dragging it out, so I doubt they would join either.

Back when I was at AVS and could actively debate Amir, he would frequently talk about how hard they worked to get the BDA to see their point of view.

I would usually bring up the idea that Microsoft could have done more to influence the direction of Blu-ray within the BDA. He always seemed somewhat insulted by this notion.

It's the difference between being simply against you and wanting to work with you toward change. He always came off claiming to be the latter, but his actions were always the former.

Gary

[BluBerry]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Eklund and Marty questioned Toshiba's pricing strategy; "Tosh can't keep dropping prices much more," said Eklund. "It maybe a strategy for fighting a format war, but for us it has to be profitable."

According to the vice president of technologies he'd: "Never thought the price was an issue... when it comes to investing in a state of the art entertainment system with HD-Ready television and surround sound system, having to spend a bit extra to get Blu-ray, we feel, isn't going to drive customers away. It's the bigger picture we are looking at."

Eklund perfectly summed up the feelings of hardware manufacturers backing Blu-Ray. Observers have been saying HD-DVD will not win with bargain-basement players and price cuts, and this is exactly why: profitability. This is not a price war, so Toshiba's business strategy for HD-DVD is completely misguided.