BusinessWeek on Blu-ray vs. HD DVD and Toshiba
Those of you interested in the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format wars will be interested in reading this article over at BusinessWeek.com. It’s entitled “In DVD War, Body Blows for Toshiba” and it’s a good analysis into the current state affairs for Toshiba and the HD DVD format. The article claims that while HD DVD and Toshiba has suffered some blows in recent months, the company and the format is certainly not down for the count - at least not yet. There are still several factors that can help the HD DVD format rise from its current condition to effectively battle against Blu-ray. Since BusinessWeek articles sometimes disappear after some time, I’ll try and summarize the basic points in the article here.
- While Blu-ray appears to be winning, don’t count Toshiba and HD DVD out yet
- In response to Blu-ray’s initial dominance, Toshiba lowered prices for HD DVD players
- However, Blockbuster recently decided to stock Blu-ray discs over HD DVD discs although they have not officially declared a winner as of yet
- HD DVD is still a strong player in the online rental market with both Netflix and Blockbuster Online carrying the format
- While Blu-ray titles have outsold HD DVD titles 2 to 1 since January, there is still no clear winner since sales are overall very sluggish
- Sales of Toshiba HD DVD players have risen since the price cuts in May while Blu-ray player sales are still sluggish
- Toshiba is encouraging the Chinese government to adopt HD DVD for internal use with two large Chinese DVD manufacturers committing to do so.
- If the Chinese enter on the side of HD DVD, component prices could fall rapidly which could result in cheaper prices - but this could also hurt Toshiba should Chinese HD DVD players make it to the US
- Hollywood backing of HD DVD is still critical since the majority of the studios still back Blu-ray. However high definition content has not been very compelling thus far
- The computer market for HD DVD and Blu-ray is still a non-factor - at least until prices come down for drives and media.
The final paragraph to the article is probably the most important advice that HD DVD and Blu-ray could heed. “The solution [to the war], is for each side to call a truce and revive talks that failed two years ago to marry the two formats”. Let’s hope they do so soon before both formats become irrelevant as some have predicted.