Gartner Comment on Toshiba HD-DVD

Here is the comment of Paul O’Donovan, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner:
 
“Gartner anticipates Toshiba will finish with HD-DVD within the next couple of weeks.  Its share price has risen on the basis that the rumors are strong that it will pull out sooner rather than later. If it delays then the stock will drop very quickly.”
 
“The recent price declines on Toshiba HD-DVD players were more to do with reducing stock levels of the players than trying to win market share or spoil sales of Blu-ray players. On that basis, Toshiba may well announce its withdrawal of HD-DVD very soon.”
 
“Will this cause an acceleration of sales of Blu-ray? Probably not. The sales of Blu-ray are linked to HD flat-panel TVs first and foremost. Certainly those consumers who have bought a HD TV may now consider buying a Blu-ray player but it will depend on various factors such as do they have enough money to buy now or will they wait and maybe they will consider a Sony PS3 instead of a Blu-ray DVD player?  For sure, there will be a small rise but not an acceleration yet. That will come towards the end of the year.”
 
“Gartner doesn’t see any competitor on the horizon yet, and also doesn’t see downloads having a massive effect on the adoption of Blu-ray. The infrastructure is ready for massive HD video-file downloads yet, and I, just like books, people still like to have a hard copy to access and use whenever they want. It’ll be quite a few years yet before downloads have any real affect on optical disc sales for HD content.”