In the week following Warner Home Video’s surprise defection from the HD-DVD camp, sales of HD DVD hardware has come to a virtual halt dropping from 14,558 the week before to 1,758 whereas the Blu-ray players rose from 15,257 to 21,770. Granted this is only the first week of data following the HD-DVD defection, but those numbers must have the HD-DVD group members talking. These numbers are tracked by NPD who tracks sales figures of roughly two-thirds of consumer electronics hardware sales.
The defection coincides with promotions from both Sony and Sharp which are bundling Blu-ray Disc players with sales of their HDTVs. While these two factors are important, this Geek thinks Warner Home Video may have ended the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Only time will tell…
The question is, could HD-DVD be saved by the same genre that saved VHS? The same that brought the internet to the forefront? I’m curious to wait and see what technology that genre takes (a man David Coleman is tracking the genre diligently for me) and how it effects the market.
To add more punishment to the HD-DVD camp, just yesterday, Woolworth’s said it will stop stocking HD-DVD movies in its UK stores. However, (for now anyway) they will still be selling them in their online store.
Really is idiotic anyway, we should not be forced into a dispute such as this one and have to purchase one of our favorite movies in a certain format, should be available in a standard format to everyone. Good riddance I say, won’t be long now.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Buy and sell in your country or globally with Bizglo
Posting is free!
http://www.BIZGLO.com
That’s one way of looking at it, but the fact is that format wars like this are driven by the market (a.k.a. money). The alternative isn’t a good one, b/c it would most resemble a socialist or communist system where the minimum possible to get by is what would be foisted on the public. Of course, the public would have a standard, but they would get sub-standard quality. Competition forces quality up and technology and innovation forward. This is just the inevitable fallout.