Sony sweet-talking Microsoft, Apple to adopt Blu-ray but they’ll refuse due to changing times
By Danny Mendez
Sony is talking to Microsoft and Apple about implementing Blu-ray drives into their systems, but the two companies are more likely to refuse Sony’s offer due to "the changing times".
Courting the two, major computer companies is a logical step following Toshiba’s abandonment of HD-DVD, but getting either entity to join Sony’s cause may be much harder than it seems. Though Blu-ray is now officially the new hard-format to replace DVD, Apple and Microsoft may not feel the need to replace help replace the DVD.
One of Blu-ray’s major enemies is the concept of easily accessible, digital downloads. Microsoft previously supported HD-DVD and offers a VOD service through Live, and the company may not want to pay licensing fees to Sony, which makes the Xbox 360’s direct rival — the PS3. Apple, which currently offers VOD services through iTunes and the Apple TV, also owns a nice chunk of the digital-download market.
Digital downloads are much cheaper to manage, distribute, and produce over physical media like Blu-ray and DVD discs. If either company finds the venture into the Blu-ray camp too risky in a time when cheap and easy digital downloads are rapidly rising, it’s likely they’ll reject Sony’s offers to invest more time and money in "the future" — streaming, digital content to the living room.
Though Microsoft has repeatedly said that it has no plans for an Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive, company boss Steve Ballmer says Windows will support Blu-ray in "ways that make sense" such as device driver and third-party codec support. Microsoft is working with Blu-ray, but Live’s VOD service fills the 360’s high-def video slot.
The President of Sony Electronics in the US said that he doesn’t believe digital-downloads would overshadow Blu-ray because of today’s bandwidth limitations, according to the Financial Times.
“Downloading will build over time, but this will be over a period of years,” he added during a media dinner.
Yes, downloading will build over time, but it’s exactly those years — and the money needed for those years — that Apple and Microsoft don’t want to waste.
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