Toshiba HD DVD Players Have 71% Retail Market Share in Europe

By Alex Armitage July 12 (Bloomberg) -- Toshiba Corp.'s video players with the HD DVD high-definition standard have a 71 percent market share in retail sales in six European countries, Toshiba said, citing market researcher GFK Group. The figure includes those players sold to consumers through retail stores from January 2006 through May 2007 in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, Olivier Van Wynendaele, a general manager for Tokyo-based Toshiba in Europe, said in an interview yesterday. He declined to give the number of units sold. The market share may give Toshiba an advantage over rival Sony Corp., which is vying for consumer support for its competing Blu-ray high-definition format. HD DVD has support from Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and NEC Corp., while Blu-ray is backed by Samsung Group and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. There are currently 130 HD DVD film titles available in Europe, 230 in the U.S. and 100 in Japan, Van Wynendaele said. By the end of the year, there will be 1,000 titles available. While the data was only available for six countries, Toshiba is selling its product in 29 countries in Europe. Link to Story