Lowering Prices of Blu-ray Technology Could Turn Format War Ugly
March 24, 2008 3:20 am DirecTVA number of days ago, a little known electronics manufacturer announced that it would begin to sell Blu-ray players for around five hundred dollars by the end of 2007. This move could serve to make the Blu-ray format a lot more attractive to consumers than the rival HD-DVD high def digital video disc format that’s supported by Toshiba.
A number of days ago, a little known electronics manufacturer announced that it would begin to sell Blu-ray players for around five hundred dollars by the end of 2007. This move could serve to make the Blu-ray format a lot more attractive to consumers than the rival HD-DVD high def digital video disc format that’s supported by Toshiba.
The HD-DVD format and the Blu-ray format- which was introduced by Sony- have been duking it out over the past year or so for dominance of the high definition DVD market. Both formats can store enough data on a disc the same size as a standard DVD or CD to render an entire full length movie in HDTV format, plus bonus features. The two formats are similar in many ways but can’t be played on each other’s players. This has led to a lack of consumer interest because of fear of being left with the losing technology when a winner finally emerges.
Despite that fear, Blu-ray players have cropped up in many American homes- thanks largely to the popularity of Sony’s Play Station 3 video game system that has a Blu-ray drive built in- and movie titles on Blu-ray disc have been selling about twice as quickly as HD-DVD titles during the same period. This apparent popularity of the Blu-ray format has cropped up despite the fact that most Blu-ray players (with the exception of the Play Station 3) cost about twice as much as HD-DVD players.
Now, with the prospect of cheap Blu-ray players on the horizon, there’s a good chance that the dominance of the Blu-ray format will be secure. The coming emergence of cheaper Blu-ray players has prompted Sony to reverse course on its strategy and announce that it will produce its own inexpensive Blu-ray players in coming months.
While common sense would say that this would be a winning move that would crush the hopes of Toshiba for its HD-DVD format to reach supremacy, some analysts point out that may be overly optimistic for one important reason: Sony is not the only company making Blu-ray players. With other electronics manufacturers making Blu-ray players, and an extremely thing profit margin on the devices, manufacturers other than Sony might not want to take the loss involved in selling Blu-ray players below the cost of production. This could drive these other manufacturers to begin producing HD-DVD players, or perhaps worse to make dual disc players that can play both HD-DVD’s and Blu-ray discs. These players that can play both discs are a boon to consumers because they allow consumers to hedge their bets on which format will dominate the market, but they’re awful for Sony because they promise to prolong the format war.
Another factor that could prolong the format war is the fact that it’s extremely likely that Toshiba and other companies manufacturing HD-DVD players will lower the prices of HD-DVD players in an effort to preserve the one advantage that the HD-DVD format has at this point. Assuming that lowering the prices of Blu-ray players doesn’t create a definitive end to the format war, it’s about to get really ugly for the companies involved, but at least consumers will be able to enjoy low prices on the devices.