Reuters is relaying reports from Asia that Toshiba will cease production and development of HD DVD players, essentially abandoning the platform.

Toshiba had been the single largest proponent of HD DVD hardware. Earlier this year Warner announced it would support Blu-ray exclusively, which gave Blu-ray an overwhelming majority of studio support. With recent conversions by Netflix and Wal-Mart to Blu-ray-only stock, key elements to the end of the format war are in place: content, hardware, and distribution.

Apple has been a member of the Blu-ray consortium's board of directors since 2005, but has not publicly announced their Blu-ray plans. It is likely that Apple's hesitation about releasing any Blu-ray products has been at least partially due to the ongoing format war.