Is SONY conceding standalone market to HD-DVD?

[GJN]

Recent delays in Blu-ray film releases suggest to me that Sony is focusing on PS3 buyers rather than on buyers of standalone players. Movies that are released or heavily publicized seem to be directed at buyers with PS3 demographics; these include action films, horror films, and comic book adaptations. Movies that would appeal to film buffs (a group most likely to buy expensive standalone players) are the ones that are postponed, unreleased, or released only on SD DVDs. These are films like Lawrence of Arabia, Glory, Guns of Navarone, Winged Migration, Caine Mutiny, and Gandhi.

The HD-DVD alliance, on the other hand, has thus far captured the standalone player market and has been keeping film buffs happy with films like The Sting, Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca, Brokeback Mountain, Deer Hunter, Forbidden Planet, Spartacus, Mutiny on the Bounty, and Seabiscuit.

If the Blu-ray and HD-DVD groups are actually focusing on different demographic groups as their movie release patterns suggest, then we're likely to have two HD formats indefinitely, each with its own group of adherents and with the group differences increasing over time.