It’s finally official. Toshiba has announced that they will discontinue the HD DVD business. The company will no longer develop, manufacture, and market HD DVD players and recorders based on the “recent major changes in the market.”  Those of you who do own HD DVD players from Toshiba should not necessarily fear as the company will continue to provide full product support and service.

Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation had this to say in the official press release from Toshiba:

“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.”

“While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

So what’s the road ahead for Toshiba? First off, shipments for HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels will be ending by around the end of March. Toshiba also plans on ending volume production of HD DVD disk drives for PCs and games during the same timeframe. The company will still evaluate the business for integrated HD DVD drives within notebook PCs but you have to believe that particular business will eventually subside as well.

While the end of the HD DVD format is certainly a disappointment for the million plus individuals out there who purchased HD DVD players, it does finally offer clarity to the high definition video business. Don’t expect Blu-ray to take off necessarily though. With the only competitor now out of the picture, you can expect prices to stabilize on the Blu-ray front. One has to wonder whether you will see as many movie offers as you had been seeing in the past now.

[Check it out via News.com]

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