Maxell/Hitachi plans September US HD DVD-R/RW launch
According to this article from TWICE, the US division of Maxell is planning on releasing HD DVD-R and -RW discs in September (July for Japan), and shipping Blu-ray BD-Rs and BD-REs in August. They haven't announced a price for either yet. Also notable was the quoted VP's concern over the complexity of a format war and how many returns they had of recordable media in the early days of DVD. They don't anticipate the market to be profitable until at least 2007 and are focusing on consumer and retail education to ease the transition. Finally, they consider hardware pricing the most important factor in consumer acceptance of new technology.
Very interesting words, we can assume HD DVD burners will be available come September, but who, what price and what speed?
