Toshiba Corp. Chief Executive Atsutoshi Nishida sat down with the Wall Street Journal to discuss the death of HD DVD.
Chief Executive of Toshiba, Atsutoshi Nishida, said that HD DVD “was one of 45 strategic business units that we have.” He seemed to shrug of the potential of owning the next gen disc format saying, “This just means we now have 44.”
Toshiba’s announcement came quicker than most analysts expected. Most thought they would be in the game for a while longer, but the Warner announcement to drop HD DVD on Jan. 4 got Toshiba’s executives thinking they should withdraw.
In the Wall Street Journal article, Nishida also said, “One has to take calculated risks in business, but it’s also important to switch gears immediately if you think your decision was wrong.”
Toshiba plans to continue to improve standard DVD players and their upconverting capabilities, which enhance the resolution of a standard DVD on an HDTV. They also plan to make PCs part of their development, eyeing the ability of a PC to play DVDs and content on an HDTV.
