Japan’s Toshiba Corp. said on Wednesday it is delaying its launch of next-generation HD DVD players in the U.S. market to around February or March, revising its plan for a year-end start date.

“We have been discussing with content holders the most effective way to launch in the U.S. market, and it will probably be in February or March,” Toshiba Corporate Senior Vice President Yoshihide Fujii told a news conference.

Japan’s second-largest electronics conglomerate said it and content holders such as film studios believe it would be best to start sales of HD DVD players in the United States on a wide scale rather than gradually.

It said it would take several months to build up inventories after starting mass-production in mid-December.

Toshiba had originally said it planned to launch HD DVD players in the fourth quarter of 2005 in both Japan and the United States, while Sony plans to put a Blu-ray disc drive in its new PlayStation game console to go on sale next year.

Toshiba said it still plans to introduce HD DVD players in the Japanese market by the year-end.

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Source: eWeek