Mark Whittard the General Manager of Toshiba Australia also claims that Sony and their Blu-ray format may have won an early battle in the format but they have not won the war. He believes that content delivered over the web direct to TVs, some with full PC capability built in, coupled with a new generation of portable storage that will allow consumers to download movies from a kiosk in a retailer or at a public transport locations and then play it on their TV will be the next battle for Blu-ray.
Whittard, a seasoned technology executive, believes that the early demise of HD DVD could be a blessing in disguise for Toshiba and while costing them money now could in fact result in Toshiba moving on to new technology ahead of their competitors.
At a retail level Toshiba is refusing to give any refunds to consumers who have purchased a HD DVD player in Australia and are confident that they will be out of the market "Totally" by April. He claims that there is still "inherent value'' in the players as they upscale a traditional DVD and have an Ethernet connection. Toshiba has promised to deliver ongoing full product support and after-sales service for all existing HD DVD owners for five years.
