Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 7, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Following Warner’s surprising and, according to industry insiders, far-reaching decision, only major Hollywood market players such as Paramount and Universal remain as supporters in the HD DVD camp. In addition, HD DVD is coming under increasing pressure due to storage-space deficits and ever-cheaper Blu-ray players costing under 300 euros. Meanwhile, HD DVD advocate Toshiba sstill presents itself as combative and speaks of a market situation that is still far from finally decided.
“Warner’s decision, as one of the largest film studios, to rely exclusively on Blu-ray in future is psychologically decisive. In addition, Blu-ray as a multimedia format for the film industry has the edge in terms of both sales and storage space. In this respect, HD DVD has a disadvantage, and Toshiba appears visibly shocked by Warner’s decision,” says Bernhard Krause, spokesman for the German manufacturer of CD and DVD production equipment, Singulus Technologies. According to the insider, Blu-ray Disc’s final triumph also depends on the positioning of major corporations such as Apple or Microsoft. The iPhone manufacturer announced at the beginning of the year that it wanted to equip future computers with Blu-ray drives. This step seems obvious, since company chief Steve Jobs not only has contacts with Sony but also sits on the Blu-ray consortium.
“People have declared us dead once before,” countered Jodi Sally, responsible for marketing digital audio and video devices at Toshiba USA, at the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show 2008 http://www.cesweb.org. Although Warner has supported both successor formats, the blue discs, prominently represented by Sony, are selling better. HD DVD critics repeatedly point out that Sony’s Playstation 3 games console has brought a Blu-ray player into many households almost incidentally. Although Sally argues that HD DVD players accounted for around 49.3 percent of the market for high-resolution discs up to December 22, 2007, the percentage market shares shift significantly in favour of Blu-ray when the Playstation 3 is included.
Taiwanese manufacturers also see Warner’s decision as a key factor that will bring about a definitive market positioning of the competing DVD successor formats, the Asian industry portal DigiTimes reports today, Monday. “It is significant when Toshiba cancels all press conferences about the future of the successor format at one of the world’s most important consumer trade fairs against the background of the Warner decision,” Krause adds. Despite Blu-ray’s successes in the multimedia business, Dirk Thomaere, Toshiba Europe General Manager Computer Systems D-A-CH, saw the future of HD DVD in the software segment. “I think that this business strategy currently serves more as a substitute solution; after all, it also took a very long time for software manufacturers to make the shift from CD-ROM to DVD,” Krause said.
