An escalation of the high definition DVD format war. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. There had been hopes by some in the business of selling consumer electronics.....that the dust would have settled and there would be a clear winner by now in the battle between the Blu-ray high definition DVD camp led by Sony and the HD DVD camp led by Toshiba and Microsoft. Instead....the battle has intensified. While HD DVD sales have trailed Blu-ray, thanks in part to its inclusion in Sony's PlayStation 3, Toshiba and Microsoft are stepping up their campaign. They have signed up Paramount and Dreamworks to release movies exclusively in the HD DVD format. Mark Simons is VP and general manager of the digital products division at Toshiba...which is releasing new notebook PCs...some under a thousand dollars...that include HD DVD drives. He says that will be a key in HD DVD winning the format war...
Well I think ultimately it will be decided by volume. And I think that volume will be swayed in 2008 and I think the notebook form factor will be what makes that decision so decisive and quickly. Hopefully not even too far into 2008." Leaving what, the PlayStation 3 as a game player? "I think so. I think that's how people intend to buy the product."
There are players out there from LG and Samsung that will play both kinds of high definition DVDs, but they are more expensive. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.