HD DVD vs Blu-ray war could be moot by 2012 thanks to computers
By Sean P. Aune
According to a newly released study, by 2012 we could all be saying, “What format war?”.
In a study released by ABI Research, it seems that by 2012 they predict that the high definition drive market for computers will be a $2 billion dollar industry. The surprising part is that they expect two-thirds of that total market to be dual format drives.
“Few universal drives are sold today, partly because of their higher price,” said Stan Wilson, principle analyst of the study. “But those prices will fall to about the same as Blu-ray players by 2009, and we forecast universal player sales to exceed Blu-ray the following year.”
With the recent rumors that dual format players may hit the home market at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at the sub-$500 price, and now this study, will the final winner of the war be the consumers? As it stands now, 18-months into the ‘war’, the losers are both formats in the form of sales. The dueling formats have done nothing but leave confused consumers in its wake, and most are hesitant to jump in for fear of picking the losing side.
All of this analysis pointing to hardware manufacturers just saying it’s not worth it, and making dual format options, points to the consumers finally being the winners in the end. The fight will then move to pricing of the discs, and that can lead to nothing but happiness in the homes that have players.
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Stumble It!
January 2nd, 2008
Wow, so dual drives might be a growing market. No sh!t Sherlock.
But just what sort of bubble do these twits live in huh?
By what possible stretch of the imagination could you foresee anything computer based taking over DVD in the widest sense?
I don’t know about you but there are members of my family that still have no computer, no interest in a computer and want a nice simple standalone under their TV.
PC drives are a different animal altogether, they will not be the deciding factor in the current high def wars.
But it’s just stunning to imagine that people got paid to (hugely over -) state the bleedin obvious.
January 5th, 2008
With the recent Warner decision, this is not good news for those of us already invested in the HD-DVD format. As a typical HD-DVD adopter with a family budget, I just wanted an affordable “standalone” HD player (which was filled by the Toshiba A2 at 199). How soon will we see Sony come out with a 99 to 199 BD 1.1 SA player? Who knows by then, yet another format “HVD” will be waiting in the things. Once bitten, now twice shy. The consumer is screwed yet again. :(
January 5th, 2008
With the recent Warner decision, this is not good news for those of us already invested in the HD-DVD format. As a typical HD-DVD adopter with a family budget, I just wanted an affordable “standalone” HD player (which was filled by the Toshiba A2 at 199). How soon will we see Sony come out with a 99 to 199 BD 1.1 SA player? Who knows by then, yet another format “HVD” will be waiting in the things. Once bitten, now twice shy, I think I’ll just go back to SD til the dust settles for good. Consumers are screwed yet again. :(