DVD format war: Toshiba says let the market sort it out

"DVD format war: Toshiba says let the market sort it out

There’s some interesting doublespeak going on in the latest news on the still-raging DVD format war. Last we heard, Matsushita (Camp Blu-ray) was quoted as saying Toshiba (Camp HD-DVD) had better give it up if there was to be any hope of a “unified” standard. Seems that Toshiba also has a curious vision of what a “unified” standard is — President Tadashi Okamura says he sees merchandise from both HD-DVD and Blu-ray going to market and co-existing for a time, although “the market would not allow that situation to last very long.” Right, so… wading past the verbal acrobatics for a moment we can see that the idea of both camps of what “unified” means is that one or other of the sides has to go — no wonder they haven’t reached any sort of agreement. Sony and Matsushita are showing no signs of backing down, and Toshiba is talking about waiting for a market solution. They’ve got HD-DVD product slated to ship by end of this year, with Sony set to throw down the PS3 and attendant Blu-ray drive in spring 2006 — short of a miracle, we’re not feelin’ a compromise gonna happen here, folks."