Kyodo News of Tokyo reported on Saturday, February 16 2008 that Toshiba is considering dropping its HD-DVD format. The Toshiba HD-DVD is currently competing against the Sony Blu-ray format, it is not unlike the VHS and Sony’s Betamax video format battle during the 1980s. Only one format is expected to be the standard – Sony lost this battle with its Betamax and the VHS continued to be the industry standard. Today, Sony is on a different playing field, with its Blu-ray gaining market share with the support of five major Hollywood movie studios and the Friday, February 15th announcement that Wal-Mart Stores will only carry Blu-ray in preference over the HD-DVD. Furthermore, Warner Brothers, the only Hollywood studio to carry both formats, announced last month that they will no longer support the HD-DVD. With Blu-ray continuing domination, if Toshiba does pull out its HD-DVD, it will be a victory for Sony in this latest format war.
An analysis of the victory of VHS over Betamax reveals that Sony’s mistake was in its lack of anticipation of customer needs. Though the Betamax had first-mover advantage and offered quality recording, market research later revealed that consumers preferred lengthier recording time as oppose to quality and ease of information transfer. The mistake was made due to the fact the video recording market was a new one and competitors sacrificed on research and development for first mover advantage. Ultimately, the Betamax lost to VHS though it was a superior format. The advent of the DVD manages to contain an outbreak of another format war as all major electronics corporation agreed to use it the single format for playback.
Sony did not repeat its mistakes with the Blu-ray. With the release of the Blu-ray, Sony managed to convince major film studios to carry this format, some even exclusively. As both Blu-ray and HD-DVD suffer from lack of playability from normal DVD players, Sony ultimately has an advantage with its grasp in the gaming industry. The Sony PlayStation 3 was to use Blu-ray as a format, giving gamers bias towards the Blu-ray format and removes the need of purchasing a HD-DVD enabled player. Statistics show that as of January 2008, PlayStation 3 sales have reached 10.49 million worldwide.
Ultimately, Toshiba’s pulling of its format will finally put an end to the latest series of video format wars.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"convince" = pay off
if only toshiba manage to make HD-DVD compatible with normal dvd player, i guess, it will still has a change against Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray's advantage in gaming industry surely will give Sony its victory sooner or later..
kiki
Post a Comment