Toshiba jumps into Blu-ray pool

Toshiba is taking a step back on its full fledged support of HD-DVD technology, with the announcement by Yomiuri Shimbun that the electronics company plans to introduce a line of Blu-ray players into the marketplace by the end of the year.

While Toshiba has withdrawn from the HD-DVD market, the move to Blu-ray may not be very helpful, since last year’s final DVD sales and rentals dropped down by $2.6b from 2007, which is a global difference of about 4.8%.

DVD sales have been dropping for the last several years, but the hope that Blu-ray could replace the meagre sales has been falling short since the recession has tightened most people’s budgets.

Blu-Ray sales last year still only totalled $482 million which is less than a quarter of what is needed to make up for the DVD losses.

Yet, even though Blu-ray may not be picking up where DVD left off, the sales reports are still rising, with a 13% increase in Blu-ray sales in the US for 2009 and Blu-ray player sales rising by 25%.

However, the largest threat to Toshiba may not be how many people are willing to purchase a Blu-ray player, but instead how many people want a Toshiba Blu-ray player when LG and Samsung have already built a strong reputation for affordable, reliable machines.