Japanese high-tech giant Toshiba today announced its withdrawal from the high-definition DVD business, conceding defeat in a long-running format war with rival Sony.
Toshiba said that it aimed to end sales of its HD DVD machines by the end of March, clearing the way for the Blu-ray format developed by Sony Corporation and its partners to become the industry standard.
'We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,' Toshiba's chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida said.
In a replay of the VHS-Betamax video cassette format war in the late 1970s, Japanese high-tech giants had been battling to set the industry standard in next-generation DVDs with two rival formats that are incompatible.
But Toshiba and its HD DVD partners suffered a series of heavy setbacks, with Hollywood titan Warner Brothers and US retail giant Wal-Mart both throwing their weight behind Blu-ray.
