James Delahunty
5 Jun 2007 12:43
Toshiba Corp. has announced it aims to put HD DVD hardware into all of its laptops starting next year, pushing the HD DVD optical disc format forward once again. "The demand is there: people want to watch their favorite movies in high-definition on the road," Toshiba Senior Vice President Hisatsugu Nonaka told reporters at a news conference. Sony equips PS3 consoles with Blu-ray Disc players to guarantee Blu-ray playback capabilities in millions of homes.
According to research firm IDC, Toshiba sold about 9.2 million notebook PCs in calendar 2006. Presumably, adding HD DVD hardware to all of its laptops, even next year, would push up the prices and could affect overall sales. Meanwhile, Sony shipped 5.5 million PS3s by the end of March, selling 3.6 million of those units.
Toshiba also announced that it will begin selling laptops that use flash memory for storage from June 22nd. NAND prices have fallen enough to make notebooks with 64GB of flash, needed for Windows Vista. "We think flash laptops are about ready to break into the consumer market, and will start to catch on around next summer," Nonaka said. While flash laptops have many benefits like being lighter and quieter, they are priced at around 400,000 yen ($3,286).
Source:
Reuters