The battle between Blu ray and hard disc storage is set to escalate following a decision by Toshiba to invest an addition $20million in MOD Systems, a U.S.-based provider of digital content delivery systems.The battle between Blu ray and hard disc storage is set to escalate following a decision by Toshiba to invest an addition $20million in MOD Systems, a U.S.-based provider of digital content delivery systems.
Earlier this month Samsung made a billion dollar bid to buy out SanDisk who 10 days ago rolled out a new music delivery system that will allow consumers to buy music on small SD storage that fits into mobile phones, PC’s and MP 3 players.
Senior Samsung executives have already said that Blu ray has a limited life with Companies like Samsung and Toshiba betting on portable storage that allows Full HD content and music to be transferred from a purchase source to a device easily and at low cost with quality not being compromised.
MOD the Company that Toshiba has been investing in is about to launch a brand new system to deliver high-speed content downloads to SD cards using kiosks in retail stores.
In Australia Telstra is also interested in this technology as it will allow them to deliver content to Telstra kiosks in supermarkets, railway stations, airports and where their mobile phones are sold.
The Toshiba investment in MOD follows a previous $4 million investment late in 2007.
MOD Systems currently offers retailers a digital media delivery system that enables consumers to download digital content for burning to an optical format.
According to TWICE in the USA, MOD will expand their music download system in with a new system early in 2009, bringing direct downloads, including movies and TV drama series, into retail stores, Toshiba said.
Consumers will be able to use SD cards, a leading solid-state media card format, to download the content in stores for personal use at home. MOD Systems is now in discussions with potential partner companies, including studios and other content providers, hardware manufacturers and retailers.
Toshiba said it views downloading content to SD cards in retail stores as opening “the way to a new delivery service offering a wide range of high-quality titles with fast download speeds and security.”
Toshiba said high-speed downloads of large data sources such as movies require a high-speed connection able to handle high bandwidth. Therefore, it sees opportunity in a business model offering a fast direct download system in retail environments.
Toshiba said it will develop dedicated set-top boxes for the service that allows consumers to watch content on TVs, and also develop portable devices that will enable content to be viewed anywhere. Toshiba will also produce and market high-capacity SD cards for the system.
