Monday, February 18, 2008

Predictions!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Format Wars...
Anyone who has talked technology with me in the last month, will not have been shocked by the delay of the Euro launch of the PS3 as I have been predicting it.
Just reading a couple of news sites made it perfectly clear that Sony was way behind in building the PS3 and wouldn't have enough (more than 5 million units needed) for a glocal release. Even more scary is that they may only manage 1 million units for November, which would mean the US would only get 500,000 or so (demand there was predicted to be 10 times that number).
However, does the delay mean that HD-DVD will get a head start over Blu-ray?
I had been predicting that Blu-ray would win the format war, solely on the back of the PS3.
Most consumers are smart enough to wait for the format war to settle down before buying new kit and I reckoned the Christmas rush for the PS3 and its built in Blu-ray player would result in a big enough market share to kill HD-DVD pretty quickly.
Even more weird is the concept that Blu-ray will win in Japan and the US, but Europe and Oz will pick HD-DVD. Not a problem for film distributors, as their content is localised anyway, but hardware manufacturers won't like it. In the end I expect that Blu-ray would be forced upon us by the Japan/US technology market.
Anyway, Sony has fumbled the ball and it remains to see if this could be their undoing.

Way back I postulated that Blu-Ray would eventually win the HD format wars, based solely on the integration with the PS3.

Looks like I was right as Toshiba (the main HD-DVD technology producer) has decided to pull out of that format following the mass evacuation of its original supporters.  I'm so glad I didn't leap on that bandwagon.  Especially since I would have picked HD-DVD as the superior format!!!!

4 comments:

GF said...

Toshiba have not yet pulled out, at least that's the official comment.

I would probably have went HD-DVD but that's purely as a dislike for Sony. However, two of my mates have PS3s and whilst one wants it purely for games the other uses it purely for HD films. I think I can finally be convinced to go Blu-Ray, now if only the technology in my house would stop fucking breaking, I could afford to buy one!

Jase said...

I know that feeling.

GF said...

Seems you are right, and the death knell has err, 'knelled' :)

Jase said...

I do my best to beat the news by at least one day!