Aug 31, 2007 01:22 PM
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After yesterday's Blu-ray press conference, Toshiba fired back...over the course of two very, very long hours. And by "fired back," we really mean gave a bunch of presentations that were too long. So we're giving you a fast forward version of the conference...that still feels a bit like slow-mo, but here is the meat of it: Running through Toshiba's game plan, Fujii went through the 3-pronged strategy of HDD, HD DVD and SD in Toshiba's multimedia approach. He also mentioned, "I'm sure withing three years the price of 32GB of flash memory will be the range of $100 dollars," and that optical discs would be around in, "30, 40, even 100 years."
The show opens with Yoshihide Fujii introducing a video. It's a CGI wonderfest, best transcribed from my notes:
"A rotating metal globe shoots a laser. Stuff lights up. It's a submarine! It's a, wait, pirate ship! WITH JETS ON THE BACK. Now it's flying. Best video ever. Weird galaxy thingies now. Lots of floating metal balls. Pink elephants fly past the screen. Pigs. The word you were looking for was "pigs."
That was the video. "It's true, it cost very much," Fujii said.
Ironically, they showed off the same Harry Potter and Oceans 11-13 packs that would be coming to HD DVD that we just saw mentioned in the Blu-ray conference. They will also get an exclusive with Battlestar Galactica and the original Star Trek. And of course, there's The Matrix. As said best in a second video, "Go ahead, take the red pill!"
I expected a smattering of stats to clash in direct opposition with Blu-ray claiming a substantial lead. But the HD DVD conference sidestepped overall sales numbers. They preferred points like:
- "The hi def format is about stand alone consoles, not game machines"
- "For every 2 ps3's, one movie is sold. While 4 movies are bought for every [HD DVD] player"
- "Many Blu-ray owners will only get advanced features if they buy new players with BD Java..."
and my personal favorite:
- "The consumer is pretty happy with the experience they get with DVD."
Instead, they focused on their success with the PC market, claiming a 70% share of European IT market.
And that's the show. Pretty long for fast forward? Let's just say that before I went in, I never had to dye my pubes.
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