I told you so. Just a few days ago I reported on the ASUS addition of HD DVD in two of their laptops and I wondered how long it would be before the HD format or Blu-ray would become standard equipment. Now Toshiba has announced they will be including HD-DVD players in their Satellite line of laptops starting in the third quarter of 2007. This will be in addition to their Q30, a more advanced machine, which will be getting an HD-DVD burner in the second quarter.
The Satellite line is Toshiba’s main steam line of low cost laptops. Lately, laptops make up a larger percentage of computer sales and many times, laptop purchases are updated more often. This should go a long way towards tipping the balance toward HD DVD and Toshiba predicts it will sell 500,000 HD DVD players of one type or another in Europe for 2007.
It remains to be seen as to whether this trend will increase the popularity of either HD format or if it will just be another example of technology chasing a market. After all, most PCs, at least here in the US, offer some sort of super-multi drive that will utilize DVD RAM. We certainly buy the equipment, but how many of us actually use DVD RAM?
