Toshiba laptops to use HD DVD drives

In a bid to win the next-generation DVD format battle, Toshiba is planning to equip all its laptops next year with HD DVD drives.

According to Hisatsugu Nonaka, Toshiba senior VP, Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 game consoles come with Blu-ray drives, and Toshiba should employ the same strategy.

"The demand is there. People want to watch their favourite movies in high-definition on the road," Reuters quotes Nonaka during a news conference.

At this week's Computex 2007 in Taiwan, Toshiba will present the SD-L912A rewriteable HD DVD drive for laptops. The half-inch thick drive can read, write and rewrite to HD DVD-RW discs, as well as read and write to HD DVD-R discs and standard DVDs and CDs.

In addition, the company will be selling laptops using flash memory beginning June 22. "We think flash laptops are about ready to break into the consumer market, and will start to catch on around next summer," Nonaka said. The new flash laptops will sell around Rs.1.35 lakh ($3,300). Toshiba hopes such laptops would help double sales to 10 lakh units next year.