Top executives of Matsushita Electric Industrial, marketers of the Panasonic brand worldwide, made pointed comments about the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war and current CE conditions to the press at the CEATEC Japan 2007 show on Tuesday.
The most direct remarks in roundtable discussions with the press were from Kazuhiro Tsuga, executive officer, who was reminded of his criticism of combination Blu-ray/HD DVD players in the past when he said that Panasonic "would never introduce such a stupid product." When asked if LG and Samsung's combi introductions have changed Panasonic's mind, he joked that they haven't "like those stupid companies."
He then got serious and explained, "Fortunately we haven't changed our mind ... we believe that movie studios" will select one format, namely Blu-ray sooner rather than later. When reminded that Paramount has decided to carry HD DVD, Tsuga was adamant, "Everyone knows that big [promotional] money from Toshiba or Microsoft has gotten backing for [HD DVD]. Major studios backing Blu-ray want us to put more money behind promoting the format" and its features "to make the market bigger."
