We’ve all been wondering since the February announcement of Toshiba dropping on HD DVD what the impact will be on the company. According to estimations from Japan’s Nikkei business daily, Toshiba will suffer a $1 billion loss for this business year, but the company said they were not responsible for the announcement so therefore they cannot comment on it.

A spokesperson for the company said however that “When we have determined of a revision to our earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending March is necessary we will release it as soon as possible.”

In other words, they know something we don’t know for sure but suspect, but they are not ready to go public with it before the end of the fiscal year. However, it’s no wonder Toshiba faces such loses, after the HD DVD department announced a permanent vacation starting this month, when the company will stop selling HD DVD devices.

According to the same newspaper’s estimation, the poor sales of HD DVD, DVDs and other loses, including from advertising campaigns will cost them, if it didn’t already, around 50 billion yen to shut down the business.

Toshiba reportedly expected big loses, but not as high as the newspaper reported. The question we can’t help but wondering right now is: will Toshiba turn to Blu-ray as well, since Sony’s creation became such a phenomenon?

The company made no comments on these assumptions, but everyone expects to see the new steps Toshiba is planning to take. After all, wasn’t it: If you can’t beat them, join them? We’ll have to way and see if that applies to this situation.

Immediately after dropping HD DVD, the Japanese company turned for the flash memory market, announcing plans for new generation flash memory drives, which will cost them $16 billion, but the profit will be sweet.