Toshiba Announces New HD DVD Campaign

Toshiba Corp., the biggest backer of HD DVD, has announced a new marketing initiative and has also made it clear that this format war isn't quite over yet.

"HD DVD is the best way to watch movies in high definition," said Jodi Sally, Vice President of Marketing, Toshiba's Digital A/V Group. "Our HD DVD players not only play back approximately 800 HD DVD titles available worldwide and deliver an entirely new level of entertainment but also enhance the picture quality to near high definition on legacy DVD titles by all studios. In short, we added high def to DVD which already is the de facto standard format created and approved by the DVD Forum that consists of more than two hundred companies."

The press release also announced the new prices for Toshiba HD DVD players. As of yesterday (Jan. 13) the MSRP of the basic HD-A3 will be $149.99, the HD-A30, with 1080p output, $199.99, and the top model HD-A35, $299.99.

"While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer," said Yoshi Uchiyama, Group Vice President Digital A/V Group. "Consumer sales this holiday season have proven that the consumer awareness of the HD DVD format has been elevated and pricing is the most critical determinant in consumers' purchase decision of the next generation HD DVD technology. The value HD DVD provides to the consumer simply cannot be ignored."

The press release went also said that HD DVD was extending its current marketing strategy and the format's connectivity to the Internet as well.

Date：2008-3-20　【Return】