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Source :- technewsworld.com"Announcing the news in Tokyo yesterday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told reporters that his company and electronics giant Toshiba are expanding their alliance, planning to work on high-definition DVD players that would use a specialized version of Windows. Gates also said Microsoft might consider using HD DVD in a future update of the company's upcoming Xbox 360 video game console.
Microsoft is expanding an alliance with electronics giant Toshiba, inserting itself further into a battle over new DVD formats even as it tries to stay neutral on the issue.
Toshiba Latest News about Toshiba, which backs the HD DVD format over the rival Blu-ray Disc, plans to work with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft on high-definition DVD players that would use a specialized version of the Redmond, Wash., company's Windows operating system. It's part of a broader plan by the companies to collaborate and share technology.
Announcing the news in Tokyo yesterday, Bill Gates told reporters that Microsoft also might consider using HD DVD in a future update of the company's upcoming Xbox Latest News about Xbox 360 video-game console.
Presidential Praise
Appearing with the Microsoft chairman, Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida called the expanded alliance a positive development for the Japanese electronics company and for the HD DVD format in general.
But Gates and other Microsoft executives said the company isn't exclusively supporting either format as the standard for next-generation DVD players or other machines.
"Our partnership really doesn't represent Microsoft endorsing one format or another," said Kevin Eagan, general manager of Microsoft's OEM division, which works with computer hardware makers.
The situation represents a balancing act for Microsoft as it tries to expand the use of Windows and the Windows Media format in next-generation computers and consumer-electronics devices.
Supporters of the Blu-ray Disc technology include the world's two largest PC makers, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) Latest News about Hewlett-Packard and Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) Latest News about Dell Computer. Others include Microsoft rivals Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Latest News about Sony, which is using Blu-ray Discs in its PlayStation 3 game console.
Squaring Off
Each camp claims its own benefits. Blu-ray discs would offer more capacity, storing up to 50 gigabytes each, compared with 30 gigabytes in an HD DVD disc. More capacity lends itself to sharper images. But supporters of HD DVDs say discs in that format are cheaper to produce because of similarities to existing DVDs.
Backers of the two formats have been trying to agree on a common format. But their inability to do so thus far raises the possibility of a format war along the lines of the Betamax-VHS battle in the early days of the videocassette recorder.
Microsoft's agreement with Toshiba isn't likely to shift the balance of power between the rival camps, said Josh Peterson, director of strategic alliances for HP's optical storage business and a spokesman for the Blu-ray Disc Association. He cited the support for Blu-ray among hardware makers and noted that Gates himself declined to endorse either format over the other.
"This doesn't really do anything to change the landscape between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, primarily because the same issues that separate the two remain," Peterson said.
A Subtle Role
However, even with Microsoft's continued neutrality, the alliance with Toshiba could play at least a subtle role in upcoming talks between backers of the rival formats, said analyst Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group in Seaford, N.Y.
It "might make the talks go faster, or it might make them more strained. There's no way of telling so far," Doherty said.
However, he added that the Toshiba president is not likely to "leave his press clippings behind" about the expanded Microsoft alliance.
Microsoft and Toshiba said in a statement that they would "investigate the development" of HD DVD players that would be based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system for consumer-electronics devices. The machines would work with DVDs using Windows Media technology, Microsoft's Eagan said.
The companies declined to give other specifics, such as when the high-definition DVD players with the Microsoft technology would debut.
Microsoft and Toshiba agreed in April to share a range of patented technology through an arrangement known as a cross-licensing agreement. They described yesterday's announcement as a continuation of that deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The companies have worked together in the personal computer market for the past two decades, with Toshiba using the Windows operating system in laptops, Media Center PCs and Tablet PCs. Toshiba said yesterday that it is working on new computers that will run on the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, due for release late next year."
About blooming time Big Bill got his act together and used a next gen media for his new X-box, like how he whent for the one againg Sony