HD DVD - BLU-RAY - X-Box Rumours

From One TO One Magazine

Friday, 07 July 2006

The internet has been abuzz in recent days with rumours and denials concerning the blue-laser format war, with HD DVD particularly featured. First came the claim by US electronics industry analyst iSuppli that Toshiba was losing money on its HD-A1 HD DVD player. The company stripped the device down to its components and costed the bill of materials, plus accessories, at $700 – well above the device’s $499 retail price. These claims were refuted by Mark Whittard, general manager of Toshiba Information Systems Division in Australia. “My understanding is that the price is set to make a profit. We’re not in business to lose money,” he said. “The direction from Tokyo is that we have to make a profit.” Next came the rumour that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 would in future contain an internal HD DVD drive, which would be included at no extra cost to the consumer as a means of adding value while maintaining the current retail price. This was scotched by Cesar Menendez of the Microsoft Games global marketing team writing on the Gamerscoreblog site. “We have no plans to release an Xbox 360 with an internal HD DVD,” he said. “What we showcased at E3 was an external HD DVD drive, and we're sticking with that.” Finally, in the reappearance of a rumour that first surfaced last year, Samsung was reportedly considering producing a combined Blu-ray/HD DVD player. This story found currency following comments by an assistant manager in Samsung’s home-platform product planning division, who said that although the company would not produce an HD DVD-only player, it was considering a joint player. However, a Samsung spokesperson later denied that the company had any firm plans in this regard, citing a company statement that “Samsung Electronics is fully committed to the Blu-ray format and currently only has plans to introduce a Blu-ray player to the market.” LG, however, mentioned back in March that it was looking to release a combined-format player in late summer or early autumn