Toshiba joins Blu-ray Disc Association

Finally admits defeat

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10 August 2009 9:37 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Over a year ago, Toshiba gave in and finally dropped its last vestiges of support for its ultimately unsuccessful HD-DVD format. For a while, the company coasted along, building upscaling products and ignoring Blu-ray entirely.

Well, now Toshiba's gone one step further and has properly got into bed with the enemy - by applying to join the Blu-ray Disc Association, which is a requirement to produce Blu-ray products. As a result, we could soon see announcements of new Blu-ray oriented products from the technology giant.

That could include standalone players, as well as PC drives, notebooks with Blu-ray built in, and even televisions with integrated Blu-ray drives. It shouldn't be long until we find out - IFA is just around the corner.

The company said on the subject: "In light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA".

However, some analysts believe that the era of the physical device - even in Blu-ray form - is over and that digital downloads of HD content are just around the corner. Whatever happens, we'll bring you full coverage on Pocket-lint.