On Monday, Toshiba did what some thought it would never do: apply for membership to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). After losing a long battle for high-definition DVD technologies, Toshiba has signaled plans to launch products that support the Blu-ray format it once rivaled.
Toshiba cited recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers as the impetus for joining the BDA, whose members include Sony, Samsung, Hitachi and many other leading electronics manufacturers.
Betting on Blu-ray Growth
Blu-ray discs are seeing sales growth. According to Futuresource Consulting, consumers are on target to buy more than 100 million Blu-ray discs in the United States, Europe and Japan in 2009. Sales of high-definition-capable LCD and plasma TVs, along with continued price declines of Blu-ray disc (BD) players, are fueling the interest in packaged hi-def content despite the economic downturn. Futuresource Consulting forecasts that the major global Blu-ray disc markets will grow from 18 million discs in 2008 to 130 million discs in 2010.
“BD disc sales continue to expand into all major markets and genres, although to date the business has gravitated towards new release titles,” said Jim Bottoms, managing director at Futuresource. “In particular, the action adventure genre dominates, appealing strongly to the young male technology adopter, which also closely matches the PS3 owner profile. For some high-profile titles, close to 25 percent of all disc sales have been on BD, while other action adventure titles consistently see BD accounting for over 15 percent of total sales.”
Toshiba is looking to get in on the action. The company already offers a lineup of advanced digital products, such as DVD recorders and players, HDTVs and notebook PCs that support a wide range of storage devices, including hard disk drives, DVDs and SD cards. Now, Toshiba plans to introduce…