There have been many epic format battles over the last few decades. First there was Betamax vs. VHS, then CD vs Minidisc and most recently HD DVD vs Blu-ray. It is now rumoured that Toshiba, the once ardent supporter of HD DVD, will be releasing a Blu-ray player by the end of the year.
Toshiba was one of the main supporters of the HD DVD format (along with Microsoft) and they hoped it would become the successor to the very popular DVD format. But in February 2008, after a long format war with Blu-ray, Toshiba abandoned HD DVD, announcing it would no longer develop or manufacture HD DVD players or drives.
Blu-ray, which had the backing of giants like Sony and Panasonic, is the only viable HD optical disk format available today, so it is almost inevitable that Toshiba will have to make Blu-ray devices and it looks like that time has come.
According to the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbunm, Toshiba (who are also based in Japan) will be releasing a Blu-ray player later this year.
Although Blu-ray is really the de-facto standard and is starting to enjoy good consumer sales, in the UK Toshiba has offered a Blu-ray alternative with its XDE DVD players that claim to upscale the standard definition content on DVD to that of HD quality.
It is probable that the Blu-ray player will first launch in Japan and then the rest of the world. There are also rumours that Toshiba will create a Blu-ray recorder for its home market of Japan.