Toshiba finally quits the HD-DVD business after failing to get into the mainstream business. This is certainly a sad case because Blu-Ray is going to monopolize the whole market. I kinda hope that they will come in between, something like what happened to DVD+R and DVD-R. I understood how Toshiba would want to cut their losses but losing a giant in the HD DVD alliance is going to shift the weight towards Blu-Ray. Let’s see how they are going to affect us.

Pros:

1. It is time to get Playstation 3. Being the most cheapest and powerful Blu-Ray player around, you don’t have to worry about firmware upgrades. The player is capable of reading new content provided you update the player regularly.
2. You do not have any worry when picking up those Blu-Ray movies. Yes, with HD-DVD out of the question, you don’t have to worry whether Hollywood would embrace HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.
3. 3. Getting a blank disk for your Blu-Ray should be just a snap. Not to mention that you will have 50GB at the tip of your finger.

1. Sony will start increasing price for their ‘legal steroids‘ Playstation 3. I’d think both Playstation 3 and the price for the Blu-Ray discs are going to increase as well.
2. No monopoly means the alliance can do a lot of unwarranted things like purposely upgrade the standards of Blu-Ray and force consumer to buy new player or pay to upgrade their equipment to read the new content. For example, Sony would probably charge consumers USD $100 for the PS3 upgrade in the future.
3. Software developer will no longer learn how to shrink their programs because they will make them bigger and bigger.

So what gives? Is Toshiba pulling out is a good thing? Where the Blu-ray consumers celebrate their winnings, we must not forget that the manufacturer giants might be thinking of a step to extort more money from us.