CORP TALK: Japan’s Toshiba Corporation will be entering the Blu-ray Disc market, after more than a year of abandoning the HD-DVD format market. According to an AFP report here, the company will be launching Blu-ray products as soon as this year, encouraged by the rapid growth and demand for the format in Japan.

Navin Danapal, Technical Editor, HWM Malaysia

Navin (HWM MY): If this doesn’t seal the next-gen DVD war then nothing else will. Toshiba was the biggest advocate for the rival HD-DVD format going against Sony’s Blu-ray Disc (BD) format in the past few years.

Over time we began to see Sony’s BD standard taking up the storm while Toshiba’s HD-DVD began to wither in support.

However, to see Toshiba themselves entering their rival’s market is ultimately the nail-in-the-coffin for the HD-DVD format, as there were some rumours that the Japanese are not known to take kindly to defeat, and that Toshiba won’t back down from their HD-DVD war. Now with this entry, it’s clear the days of HD-DVD is over for good. (more…)