Chris Gohlke
08-14-2006, 12:17 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6104503.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnn' target='_blank'>http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6104503.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnn</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The battle between two hyped formats for high-definition DVD will confuse shoppers and turn many of them off the whole technology, a London-based research firm predicted on Friday. Market research analyst Screen Digest also forecast that only $11 billion of the total $39 billion expected to be spent on video discs by 2010 in the United States, Europe and Japan will be generated by the competing high-definition formats, Sony-backed Blu-ray and Toshiba-supported HD DVD. "The net result of the format war and the publicity it has generated will be to dampen consumer appetite for the whole high-definition disc category," Screen Digest analyst Ben Keen said."</i><br /><br />OK, so not really a newsflash to us here. The interesting tidbit from this one seems to be that they have actually quantified some of the effect of the battle. You probably remember that DVD was a slam dunk from the industry perspective in that it was one of the quickest consumer adoptions of a new product ever. All parties wanted a repeat but also wanted to make sure they had a piece of the pie, leaving us with the current format war. Based on this article the results may be something less than the industry hoped for with less than a 1/3 market penetration by 2010.