Retailers face HD DVD phase-out
Now that Toshiba has pulled the plug on its HD DVD business, retailers who sold customers HD DVD CDs and players will have to deal with returns. Jill Barshay reports there's at least a slight silver lining.
HD-DVD recorders at a electronic shop in Tokyo on February 18, 2008. Japanese investors welcomed Toshiba's signals that it may abandon the HD DVD format, surrendering to rival Sony's Blu-ray in the battle to set the next standard of high-definition DVDs. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/Getty Images)
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TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: HD DVD is headed for its final resting place in the technology graveyard. Right next to Betamax. Today in Japan, Toshiba pulled the plug on its HD DVD business. That leaves Sony's Blu-Ray as the winner of the format war.
Toshiba will probably lose hundreds of millions of dollars on HD DVD. But it's not the only loser here. More now from Jill Barshay.
Jill Barshay More than a million customers shelled out $300 to buy HD DVD players or $100 to get their video game consoles to play the high-def format.
Richard Doherty is research director for Envisioneering Group, which studies the market for new technologies. He says to add insult to injury many players were purchased in the past couple months because Toshiba had slashed prices.
Richard Doherty: Retailers may have to deal with some returns. Some consumers may say, hey, I bought this player in early February and now I understand there's no more movies out, I want my money back.
Doherty says for their part, retailers and wholesale distributors will likely dump their inventories of HD DVD players on home shopping channels and on online discounters.
One silver lining for those already saddled with the players: Doherty predicts consumers will be able to snap up remaining HD DVDs disks for as little as $10 a pop.
In New York, I'm Jill Barshay for Marketplace
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