After Toshiba's
announcement that it was adopting Blu-ray, British site Trusted Reviews contacted Olivier van Wynendaele, assistant general manager of marketing and consumer products at Toshiba Europe (and formerly HD DVD's front man for the continent). Van Wynendaele went into detail regarding the decision and the company's strategy.
As to why now, Van Wynendaele said that Toshiba has had its eye on Blu-ray since HD DVD, and now they "have seen the format mature and prices have come down making products more affordable." Also, the adoption of BD Live "brings essential online capabilities and offers something beyond a purely physical format". Additionally, the format is taking "significant shares of the market", especially in the UK, Japan and the US.
Van Wynendaele tacitly admits market pressure to enter Blu-ray. The company wants to secure on Blu-ray the leadership position it has on DVD. Also, having a Blu-ray player will support sales of Toshiba TVs, "particularly where bundles are increasingly offered to consumers for a High Definition TV and Blu-ray player."
Toshiba is more lukewarm towards BD drives in laptops. In their opinion, "the laptop market is actually not proven for Blu-ray yet, the DVD drive is still hugely dominant and market growth is largely in the netbook area which has little need for it." However, it is "definitely a developing sector" so Toshiba sees its potential, especially for the Qosmio line before trickling down to cheaper lines.
Toshiba clarifies that this doesn't mean the end for upscaling: all Toshiba drives and DVD products will continue to offer upscaling. However, they don't want to "give the impression it is competing directly against Blu-ray," but only a necessary technology to get the best from SD content.
When asked about Blu-ray's life expectancy, Van Wynendaele said that, even though that is impossible to tell, "for the foreseeable future Blu-ray will be very important." The company is always working on many different technologies, but he readily stated, "the time for Blu-ray is coming now."
With regard to product details, Van Wynendaele couldn't get into specifics, but there will be products on the shelves "before the end of the year for sure." Toshiba aims to introduce standalone Blu-ray players and Blu-ray equipped laptops, and TV/player packages in the UK.
A bit of company pride still lingers when Van Wynendaele claims that they thought HD DVD was "the best technology at that time, but he quickly adds, "but HD DVD is done, rest in peace, and it is only Blu-ray. Yes it was worth the fight at the time, but now we move on."