Tosh joins Blu-ray crowd

Chris Forrester



Toshiba yesterday confirmed in Japan it would embrace the Blu-ray disc concept, join the Blu-ray Association and start producing BD players. It’s a total turn-around for the company which was the main flag-carrier for the rival HD-DVD.

Tosh is not wholly abandoning its HD-DVDs. It will continue to support the Chinese variant of HD-DVD (CBHD or CH-DVD), and says it will release its first products later this year. The decision also means that Toshiba will supply Blu-ray drives into its popular laptop computer models.

While the decision may have been inevitable, most analysts suggest that last year’s record losses ($3.5bn) at Toshiba meant that the company could no longer stand aloof from the BD market.