Sharp Corp, a member of Sony Corp's Blu-ray digital disc group, will sell seven recorder models in Japan beginning on Oct. 27 to take market share from Toshiba Corp's rival high-definition DVD (HD DVD) standard.
Sharp will initially produce a monthly output of 30,000 of the Blu-ray recorders, which will be priced between ?100,000 (US$871) and ?120,000, the Osaka-based company said yesterday.
Another two models with hard-disk storage, priced at ?200,000 and ?300,000, will be sold beginning on Dec. 1.
PHOTO: AFP
The recorders will extend the accessibility of Blu-ray, which rivals HD DVD as the next home entertainment standard, after Sony this month said it would sell four models beginning on Nov. 8. The new models may also help Sharp meet a forecast 33 percent gain in digital disc player and recorder sales to ?60 billion this fiscal year.
"We see huge potential for these models as about 80 percent of people are still using older, analog-type recorders," Masafumi Matsumoto, a senior executive vice president at Sharp, said at a briefing in Tokyo.
All Sharp recorders will be Blu-ray compatible by 2011, Matsumoto said.
Sharp, Japan's largest liquid crystal display television maker, already sells one Blu-ray recorder that needs to be used with a compatible TV from its Aquos range.
The Blu-ray format is also backed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, and Samsung Electronics Co. HD DVD has support from companies including Microsoft Corp, Intel Corp and NEC Corp.
Toshiba sells two HD DVD players and one recorder.
Sony, which has issued more than 60 movies including Casino Royale and Resident Evil: Apocalypse on Blu-ray, now sells two recorder models in Japan.
The company's PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray disc player.
Movie Blu-ray discs outsold the rival format by a two-to-one margin in the first half, estimates from Home Media Research showed.
In addition to Sony, Walt Disney Co and Fox are releasing titles only in Blu-ray, while Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros studio has put out movies in both formats.
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc and Paramount Pictures said last month they would release movies using HD DVD, joining General Electric Co's Universal Pictures as the only studios to back that format exclusively.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS