Blu-Ray dominance at Retail Stores.

[Anton]

Recently I've noticed retail stores pushing the Blu-Ray brand more and more. I walked into Best Buy today to see that they've reduced the HD-DVD shelf space to a single rack, and increased the Blu-Ray to 3 (from a previous 2/2 split). I'm sure this is probably nation-wide as everything at Best Buy is driven by their corporate office.

Best Buy also only had a single HD-DVD machine on display, and its location is such that you would have to search it out to locate it.

Walmart is the same way dedicating 3/4 of their single Hi-Def rack space to Blu-Ray.

This in my mind will sway the average consumer to Blu-Ray. I know there are countless articles covering this 'war', but to me its the retailers actions that are the most telling. They want this war to end as much as the end users do, and they are in a position to do something about it.

My wife commented to me that if it was up to her she wouldnt have purchased either until there was a clear winner, as her family had been burnt before by Betamax and Laserdisc. I am sure there are plenty of consumers which feel the same way as she does.