The Blu-Ray Blues

So Sony’s Blu-Ray managed to win the HD format war after all. Well, Laaaah-dee-frickin’-daaah! DigiTimes believes that the format still has an uphill battle ahead of it before it will have the kind of market staying power developed by the CD and DVD formats. Its shortcoming can be summed up in one word: "diversity".

The DigiTimes article looks at other market segments where CD and DVD media still enjoy broad acceptance – game consoles, in-car entertainment, camcorder storage, enterprise storage, and yes, PCs – and finds that the Blu-Ray camp may have a difficult time persuading those sectors that the technology transition to more expensive blue-laser media and readers is indeed a worthwhile one. Though if we had to put our finger on it, we suspect that the high price of Blu-Ray products in market sectors where it’s already achieved penetration (HD home video distribution) is to blame for the format not achieving wider acceptance in other markets.

Based on these factors, the initial applications for BD are limited to watching movies and playing games using a PS 3 consoles. There is not much demand opportunity in the IT market and almost no room for music applications.