Blu-ray Looks Set to Beat HD DVD
Last year I blogged about how Toshiba’s HD DVD looks set to trounce Sony’s Blu-ray, citing technical reasons why HD DVD is better.
But I didn’t account for the power of the corporation.
Now it looks like Blu-ray is winning. This was prompted by Warner’s announcement on 4 January 2008 that it would release high-definition DVD titles only in Blu-ray starting June 2008.
The Economist has an article with a nice chart from which it’s quite clear that the majority of studios are backing Blu-ray. According to this article, “sales of Blu-ray discs outpaced those of HD DVDs by two to one in 2007.” I’m sure this was in no small part due to Sony including a Blu-ray drive into its PlayStation 3 games console, thus giving millions of PS3 gamers a free Blu-ray player.
The power of the corporation: First, the studios are the ones making the decision, not the consumers. Second, Sony is bigger and stronger than Toshiba. Moreover, Sony is determined not to repeat the mistake it made with Betamax, making it even more formidable.
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