Blu-ray Won the Battle, But Still Fighting a War
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As you may have heard if you've been following the format wars, Sony's Blu-ray beat Toshiba's HD-DVD. By now you would expect Blu-ray disks to be the dominant media format, at least for video. But it isn't. Why? Keep reading for the answer to that question.
Unless you have been living under a rock the past few years and are still trying to get those beloved VHS tapes onto DVDs, you have heard a little about Blu-ray. Blu-ray won the battle for the next generation of high-definition videos. HD-DVD gave up the battle with some dignity in February, rather than dragging it out.
I thank Toshiba for this, and I'm sure Sony does as well. Sony has had a few months to think about its next move with Blu-ray, as users embrace the new market. Sadly Sony hasn't been making the money they thought they would. HD-DVD is dead and gone, leaving Blu-ray as the only player left -- but Blu-ray hasn't picked up nearly as fast as people thought it would.
What’s holding Blu-ray back from dominating the market? Blu-Ray won the battle against HD-DVD, but they have a long way to go until the HD war is over.
A Little Background
Here's a little run down of how the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray battle went down. The movie industry was pretty much divided between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Both formats were similar as far as the movies on the discs. Early on it came down to which ship you wanted to jump on board. Then last winter Blu-Ray converted a few backers of HD-DVD and that’s when the walls fell down in the HD-DVD camp. Toshiba slashed their prices down to about a third of Blu-ray's prices, but sadly it didn't work. Toshiba pulled the plug on HD-DVD in February. Since then, what has Sony been up to? Not too much about Blu-ray has been in the news lately.
No one's buying
There were plenty of people on the iIternet on forums saying how they weren't buying a next-gen player until after the battle was over. Well the battle is over, and still that huge jump in sales has yet to be seen. It appears that Blu-ray hasn't been doing any better now than when HD-DVD was around.
People have two major issues with the Blu-Ray players that are on the market now. The first is the Blu-ray Profiles that keep changing. Most players out now don't support Profile 2.0. Why would people want to put down the cash on a not so next-gen Blu-ray player?
The other factor is that it still costs $300 for a Blu-ray player. Without competition, Sony seems to be dragging their feet on making it affordable for the average consumer to buy. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it doesn't cost $300 to make a Blu-ray player. Newegg.com is selling Blu-ray drives for computers for only $130, so you know they can be made cheaper.
I paid $80 for my HD-DVD player and got five free movies. Even deep into the next-gen battle, HD-DVD was always cheaper. Sony doesn't appear to be hinting at any price drops this year. What is going to happen to Blu-ray? Blu-ray hasn't taken the next step into the market, which leaves the market wide open for competition.
Next: Next HD battle? >>
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