By Lucas Mearian
Created Feb 27 2008 - 4:19pm
I'm still a bit stunned by the lightening fast speed with which Toshiba Corp. threw in the towel on manufacturing its HD DVD players after Warner Bros announced [1] it would be throwing its full support behind rival Blu-ray Disc format.
I've been watching the battle between the two next-generation, high-definition optical disc formats with keen interest and figured that Blu-ray would win at some point but not this point. After all, the battle between VHS and Betamax video tape formats dragged on for a decade in the 1970s and 1980s, so I figured this high-def DVD battle would last at least half that time. But alas, movie studios didn't want to repeat history (apparently Betamax supporter Toshiba didn't want to either), so they forced the industry's hand and pulled their support.
In the wake of Toshiba's decision are hundreds of thousands of consumers who shelled out anywhere from $100 to hundreds of dollars for an HD DVD player. While an HD DVD player is still an upconverting DVD player, and it can play whatever HD DVD movies have already been released, otherwise the boxes have no future. Without movie studio support, there will be no more HD DVD content to play on those boxes. I think Toshiba should at least offer some credit or rebate, particularly on the higher priced models and those purchased most recently.
But according to Valleywag, a Silicon Valley tech gossip pub, Toshiba has left its customers out to dry [2]. There will be no refunds. I checked with Toshiba customer support and I was told the same thing.
Some may take the position that consumers who gambled on HD DVD players while the format wars were going on got what they deserved. I don't. Consumers aren't always savvy, but that doesn't mean they should be taken advantage of. They trust that when they buy a product, it will have some reasonably viable future, and this product simply doesn't. "Now you have to go buy a Blu-ray player?" says Gloria Barczak, a professor of marketing at Northeastern University in Boston.
To read the entire story, please visit: http://www.paradigmshiftpr.com/toshibarefund.htm
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