IDG News Service announced yesterday that Toshiba is delaying its U.S. launch of HD-DVD optical drives until 2006. As we reported in our 2004 CES coverage, three movie studios announced a total of 89 movies that would be available at or near the launch time. Apparently the Japan launch plans remain on track and Toshiba said it will begin hardware production this year. Toshiba was quoted as saying "We want to optimize the timing for launch of HD-DVD in each market. The majority of [partners] want a large-scale launch, not a gradual launch." To us, and given the recent uprising of the Blu-ray format, it simply looks like HD-DVD may be in for a shaky ride.
