Toshiba has decided to enter the Blu-ray Disc market with BD players planned for the end of the year, according to Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. Initially reluctant to embrace Sony's winning hi-def format that forced it to throw the towel on its own HD DVD format, Toshiba came to the conclusion that the BD market is growing too big to ignore, the sources said.

With Toshiba entering the market, all major cosumer electronics makers will be producing Blu-ray products. Toshiba is reported to want to focus on BD playback models as it reckons demand for Blu-ray recorders is unlikely to increase.

However, the company will consider bringing Blu-ray recorders based on the demand it sees after entering the market, the sources said. According to research firm BCN Inc., sales of Blu-ray recorders accounted for 66.4 percent of all video recorders sold in Japan in May.

Because buyers of Blu-ray hardware also purchase HDTV screen, Toshiba believes that staying out of the Blu-ray business would negatively affect sales of its flat-screen TVs – the core of its audiovisual division.

Yomiuri Shimbun reports that, at the company's shareholders meeting in June, then President Atsutoshi Nishida (currently chairman), said: "It's not that we won't do it because we've lost [the format battle]. We'll deal with the issue flexibly."

Story filed 20/07/09