Why people are not riding the Blu-ray wave...

[ReduxInflux]

interesting sure to be controversial article i just read. want to listen in on your thoughts (published hours ago...)

here's the link:

http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/editori...ray-wave.thtml

Why people are not riding the Blu-ray wave
Posted by Chris Green at 4:38pm, 10 Jul 2007

"The news that the EU is taking a closer look at the whole market for so-called next-generation DVD technologies and attempts to establish Blu-ray at all costs has got me thinking…..The odds are all in favour of Blu-ray, yet they can’t even give them away – why?

Think about it – hardly any PCs ship with a HD-DVD drive, it’s only available as an add-on for the Xbox 360, as the console itself ships with a bog-standard DVD-ROM drive. Even non-porn content providers are moving towards other formats, yet it won’t die. In comparison, the Blu-ray platform has mainstream adoption in the form of the PlayStation 3 console straight out of the box, no shortage of Blu-ray movie players for the consumer home video market, PC Blu-ray burners are expensive, but within reach of early adopters and at the moment, the majority of Hollywood is either going Blu-ray or dual-format in terms of pre-recorded media.

Yet – Blu-ray as a platform just ain’t selling. Unlike the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii at launch, the PS3 was not a day one sellout, in fact, there has never been a problem getting hold of one, and sales in the UK, US and Japan have been nothing short of rubbish, prompting a $100 price cut in the US earlier this week, no doubt to be followed in the UK where the pricing for the console is nothing short of a joke.

Dual-format PC drives are selling OK, but Blu-ray only ones are not winning favour with computer users, despite high-profile backing from the likes of Dell. From a corporate data position, Blu-ray is the more desirable platform as the disks hold more.

But, and it’s a big but, HD-DVD is cheaper. Everything about it from the drives to the cost of commercial retooling and duplication is cheaper. Yes the capacity is a little lower, but when its your budget being used on recordable media, you are going to go for the one that is overall cheaper rather than the one that holds a little bit more.

So where does this leave Blu-ray? Even for the corporate user community, the future of the platform rests in the hands of Sony. Assuming the EU doesn’t throw the book at Sony and its compatriots, it still rests with the company to invest some serious coin in pushing the platform – that means cutting the price on the PS3 worldwide to something sensible, and putting some real effort into creating cost-effective drives and media for PCs and corporate backup solutions."