Toshiba CEO talks out about HD DVD’s fate
Toshiba CEO Atsutoshi Nishida has finally talked out about his company’s decision to drop HD DVD and went as far as to say that the format did not “stand a chance” following Warner’s decision to drop the format for Blu-ray.
Citing the Warner decision, Nishida said that the format would have only had 20% of the software market share and that Warner’s decision sealed the format war’s fate.
“One has to take calculated risks in business, but it’s also important to switch gears immediately if you think your decision was wrong,” explained Nishida. “We were doing this to win, and if we weren’t going to win then we had to pull out, especially since consumers were already asking for a single standard.”
In the wake of the end of the HD format war, Toshiba said it would focus more on upconverting standard-def DVD players and PCs as well as HD digital downloads.
“We’ve been developing technologies in [the video downloads] area already, but now that we don’t have the HD DVD business, I want to put even more energy into that,”added Nishida.
Pioneer halts plasma display production
Pioneer has decided the plasma TV market is to competitive and will be halting all internal production of plasma displays. The company will not be leaving the industry however and will instead get plasma panels from Matsushita.
Currently pioneer is the 5th largest plasma TV producer and is losing money on its plasma division. Actually, Pioneer is “expected to report a loss of 10 billion yen or about $96 million USD for the fiscal year.”
Although not confirmed yet, Pioneer will supposedly close down one of its largest Japanese plasma manufacturing plants and focus the other two on assembling TVs. Pioneer stopped internal production of LCDs last year and teamed up with Sharp in a similar deal to this recent one.
Adde Mitsushige Akino of Ichiyoshi Investment Management, “This is an excellent development [Pioneer stopping plasma production]. Pioneer could have chosen another way and stepped up its plasma investment despite the fact that the business is bleeding red ink, but it’s a wise step to decide against that. A quicker decision would have been even better, though.”
Skype is coming for Japanese PSPs
Sony Japan has announced that Japanese PSP gamers will be able to use Skype services beginning in two weeks, March 18th.
The company also said that the software will be included in the upcoming Firmware update for the system and that Sony will be “releasing official microphones to coincide with the communications service.”
The service was originally supposed to hit Japanese PSPs in early January but was hit with delays due to Sony hardware failing to meet Skype specifications.
Also unveiled were new LE PSP bundles made specifically for Japan. “The PSP Matte Bronze Value Pack will go on sale April 24, priced JPY 23,800, and will come with the handheld, a pouch, hand strap, cloth, 32MB Memory Stick Duo and D Terminal AV cable.”
GDMX ramps up Blu-ray Disc production
Sonic has announced that Global Digital Media Xchange (GDMX), an Authoring facility, will be using “Sonic’s Scenarist HDMV and BD-J authoring and CineVision AVC video encoding systems” to ramp up production capabilities for Blu-ray Discs.
The new move will now make GDMX one of the biggest HD production facilities in the world and allow the company to address the huge increases in BD movie releases that will be coming thanks to the demise of HD DVD.
The Scenarist authoring system allows content creators to “automate standard authoring tasks, such as graphics output for menus, buttons, and navigation, which provides more time for implementing advanced-interactivity components in BD-Java.”
“We are delighted that another world-class authoring facility has selected Scenarist and CineVision to increase its BD Title output capabilities,” said Rolf Hartley, senior vice president and general manager of Sonic’s professional products group. “Many more movies will be released on Blu-ray Disc over the coming year and, as we have been through previous packaged media adoption cycles, Sonic will be at the forefront delivering the most advanced authoring and encoding technology available.”
European Xbox 360s to see price cut?
Although it is not officially confirmed yet, industry sources have indicated that there are upcoming price cuts coming for all Microsoft Xbox 360 models in Europe.
The rumors suggest that there are “non-disclosure agreements in place with leading retailers” preventing them to reveal the upcoming price drop but that it is coming a week or so ahead of the Easter sales period. The expected price drop is EUR 50 for each available model.
Interestingly, the latest cuts will drop the price of the Arcade Xbox 360 model to a price cheaper than the rival Nintendo Wii. The Wii has dominated the “casual gamer” and family markets since its launch but Microsoft has said they hope to have the Arcade model steal some of the Wii’s thunder. A price drop of this magnitude would certainly put some pressure on Nintendo.
Jailtime coming for two software pirates1
Yesterday, two brothers accused of software piracy were sentenced to multi-year prison sentences, said the US Department of Justice.
Maurice Robberson and his brother Thomas Robberson were sentenced to 36 and 30 month sentences respectively and ordered to pay $1 million USD in restitution. In November both men plead guilty to felony copyright infringement.
Both men sold counterfeit software through their websites Bestvalueshoppe.com, TheDealDepot.net, CDsalesUSA.com, and AmericanSoftwareSales.com. Both men agreed to pay back all revenue made by the sites which equaled the $1 million USD restitution.
“People who steal the intellectual property of others for their personal financial gain, while defrauding consumers who think they are buying legitimate products, will be punished for their crimes, as today’s sentences prove,” said Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher.
Both men received complaints from software copyright holders but denied wrong doing. Undercover FBI agents then purchased items from one of their sites and found a network of other sites selling pirated software.
FutureShop to offer HD DVD “amnesty” deal
The large Canadian retailer FutureShop has announced that anyone who bought a now obsolete HD DVD player now has the option to trade it in for a $100 CAD discount on the purchase of one of two hybrid HD players, the Samsung BD-UP5000 or the LG BH200. The hybrid players will play both HD DVD titles and Blu-ray titles. Any HD DVD player is up for the deal no matter how much they cost to begin with.
The new deal, which will last until April 3rd, will see all the received HD DVD players donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada.
A similar deal was made recently by the giant US retailer Circuit City to allow users to return their HD DVD players within 3 months or trade them in for Blu-ray players.
Samsung and Adidas to compete against Nike+iPod
Samsung and Adidas have announced the launch of the miCoach workout tracking system in an effort to compete with the popular Nike+iPod program jointly run by Apple and Nike.
miCoach will combine the Samsung miCoach mobile phone with “a heartrate monitor and stride sensor to provide accurate feedback about workout activities.” There was no word on pricing yet but the system will be available in Europe beginning next week.
“miCoach is the most advanced interactive training system in the marketplace, blending sophisticated mobile technology with the most advanced in sport innovation and training,” added Eric Liedtke, VP of Adidas Brand Marketing. “The uniqueness of miCoach is that it collects and analyzes personal data and then customizes training plans based on your fitness level and specific goals, while giving you real-time feedback during your workout via the miCoach phone.”
The mobile phone in itself has good specifications without the heartrate monitor or stride sensor including seven colorways, a 2 megapixel camera, 1GB memory capacity and a slider portion.
New, larger HDD model of Xbox 360 coming?
Microsoft may be planning to upgrade the Xbox 360 Pro to a 60GB HDD model, if new rumors are to be believed. The mid-tier model of the popular game console currently offers 20 GB of storage and the new rumor touts that Microsoft will be replacing the stock 20GB drive with the much higher capacity 60GB drive.
The upgraded console will come at the end of May or early June and although no exact reasons for given for the upgrade, we can imagine it is due to the growing power of the Xbox Video Marketplace and the larger size of game demos from the Xbox Live arcade.
On top of the upgrade, it is believed the company is considering a completely new model, although what will be inside this new model is uncertain as of yet. Could it possibly have an internal Blu-ray drive? We will keep you updated on any new developments.
Beatles finally coming to iTunes?
The United Press International has reported that a tentative agreement between Apple and former Beatle Paul McCartney had been made which would mean that the Beatles’ back catalog will finally be available for digital distribution on iTunes.
The deal, which could be in excess of $400 million USD, will be split between all the former members of the Beatles, Sony, EMI, and Michael Jackson all of which have some rights to the songs, whether it be in publishing, recording or reproduction.
Paul McCartney recently released his latest solo work for distribution on iTunes and that was followed by the release of John Lennon’s solo work prompting widespread rumors that the Beatles catalog would soon follow. There has been no official announcement from either McCartney or Apple so for now the report is just speculation but we will keep you updated.
