In it, Shimizu adopts what has become an increasingly popular stance: that the defection of Warner Bros. from the HD DVD to the Blu-ray camp during CES was a sign of the eventual demise of the HD DVD format.

Gartner is one of what I would call the "Big Four" analyst firms in our world (with IDC, NPD, and iSuppli). According to a Gartner spokeswoman, any published research represents Gartner's official position on a subject, so we can consider what Shimizu wrote to be an official statement of position by Gartner. Here's Shimizu's take, referring to the half-off price cuts made to the HD-A3 player in half ($299.99 to $149.99), and the price of the HD-A30 ($199.99) and HD-A35 ($299.99) players, which are both cheaper than their Blu-ray counterparts:

"While officially announced as price cuts, this move from Toshiba is an attempt to back up the HD DVD format after the loss of the Warner Bro.s [sic]movie studio. Warner's shift from producing in both formats to Blu-ray alone has left HD DVD with just Paramount and Universal as its major Hollywood supporters, both of which account for only 30% of all HD movies. The movement was sufficiently damaging as to force the HD DVD promotional group to postpone, and then ultimately cancel, its CES keynote session. There is still a lot of support for HD DVD as the de facto standard, from companies such as Paramount, Universal Studios and even Microsoft.

"However, Gartner believes that Toshiba's price-cutting may prolong HD DVD's life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will inflict fatal damage on the format. Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be over."

Short but to the point. Do you agree?