Toshiba to Make Blu-ray Players By Scott Wilkinson July 20, 2009 — According to a story today in Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, Toshiba will enter the Blu-ray market with players that can read BDs and DVDs by the end of this year.

This marks a distinct change in attitude from a year and a half ago, when Toshiba conceded that it's high-def disc format, HD DVD, had lost the format war to Blu-ray. At that time, the company pledged to focus on DVD upconversion and other technologies, but with Blu-ray disc and player sales on the rise as reported by the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), it could no longer stay away from this potentially lucrative market. In addition, avoiding Blu-ray could potentially hurt Toshiba's TV business, which makes the addition of BD players to its product lineup a no-brainer.

The news of Blu-ray's sales success is surprising in light of the weak economy. According to DEG's report, consumer spending on all packaged media was down 13.5 percent in the first half of 2009, but this was partially offset by the growth of Blu-ray software (up 91 percent to $407 million) and digital distribution, including digital cable and satellite as well as music downloads (up 21 percent to $968 million). Furthermore, rental spending was up 8.3 percent for the first half of 2009, boosted by a 62 percent increase in Blu-ray rental spending.

Blu-ray player sales were similarly rosy, with more than 2 million units sold in the first half of 2009, up almost 25 percent over the same period last year. This brings the total installed base of Blu-ray players in the US—including PS3s, dedicated players, and HTIBs, but not PC drives—to nearly 11 million units. No wonder Toshiba wants a piece of this expanding pie!