Bill Gates said it last week during an interview concerning the Bluray format wars. He thinks that it is ridiculous for people to run around putting their data on little round shiny discs. For myself, it seems to be a great way to keep important data that may be lost from a faulty hard drive, virus etc., so the thought of going completely digital was to me at least, not an option. However, now we have our old friends, Forrester research, that have performed a study on the subject and they too believe that the end is nigh for optical...especially if we don't provide an enjoyable experience for the consumer with the next iteration of these physical media - Bluray.
"The irony of this format war is that it comes at the tail end of the century-long era of physical media," said Ted Schadler, analyst with Forrester Research. "While a high-definition video format does bring benefits over today's standard-definition discs, in movies as in music consumers are moving beyond shiny discs," said Schadler. Providers of online video and video-on-demand on television are tapping into this trend, while Apple Computer Inc. has raised the stakes with its new portable iPod video player that downloads content from the computer. But two camps, led by Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp., are still firmly placing their bets on physical discs and players that offer sharper pictures and more interactive features. An all-out disc format war is brewing after efforts to settle on a unified standard have failed. "Consumers are getting more comfortable with alternative ways of accessing content and there's a sense of urgency to get the content out (on high-definition DVDs) as soon as possible for that reason," said Mark Knox, spokesman for HD DVD, the new format that Toshiba expects to launch around February. |
This story is a good one and you can read it in it's entirety here at Reuters. We must agree that when there are alternatives, you must entice those that are comfortable with the present in to the future. From what we can read here on CD Freaks from our members, the high definition capability is just not a good enough reason to make the leap to Bluray. We are finding at least here from our readers comments that the DVD is good enough quality, comes at a great price point, allows for backups with just a little effort and they play on inexpensive equipment.
In addition, we can accept what the iPod has done if nothing else, it has made millions of consumers accept a purchase of content that is not in a physical form. We apparently no longer need to clutch a physical product in our hands that is merely content. We just need to clutch the device that holds the content. Talk about portability, no longer are we constrained to create players that must be designed to hold a delicate, replaceable, physical storage form! How small and light can we get now? No moving parts and spinning motors either, longer battery life, etc.
Then we look to our homes. With broadband coming to more consumers every day, and with TiVo or other HDD based storage methods for television, we can see that if Toshiba and Sony don't stop this bickering, there indeed may not be a next optical storage market for them to fight over. Couple that with the baggage of newer content protection schemes we are hearing rumors about, that may severely hobble the performance and usability of the content and people just wont buy it. Not to mention that the upgrade will require an investment to all new expensive equipment in order to experience the aggravation. Hollywood, are you listening to your customers?
Let's hope both Bluray camps are reading these press notices and can realize that they simply no longer hold all the cards. We the consumer, are not waiting on pins and needles for them to bring us something new to the marketplace. We are tickled pink with DVD! In fact, if they don't do something quick, just as this article at Reuters states, they may have to fold their hands and join in a different game at a new table. I often laugh at Bill Gates predictions and quotes from the Internet, but by golly, this time he may be right!
Source: Reuters
