The Arrival of Blu-Ray Technology Essay Example

with HD-DVD" engaged in more positive discussions about HD-DVD compared to Blu-ray.

The ongoing debate among consumers about preferring HD-DVD or Blu-ray has left the ultimate winner uncertain. However, several factors indicate that Blu-ray is likely to prevail. One major reason is the extensive support from seven out of eight major movie studios - Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM, and Lionsgate - for Blu-ray. In contrast, only three major movie studios - Warner, Paramount, and Universal - back HD-DVD. Therefore, if these studios exclusively endorse one format or the other, consumers would be unable to access their favorite movies in different formats.

Furthermore, Blu-ray enjoys significant support from major players in the global consumer electronics, personal computer, and media manufacturing industries. Companies like Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, among others are backing Blu-ray. In contrast to this widespread support for Blu-ray, HD-DVD only receives backing from NEC, Toshiba and Sanyo. This discrepancy has led to conflicting results emerging.

Despite the success of Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) console with its integrated Blu-ray optical drive - which analyst Ross Rubin refers to as a successful "Trojan horse for Blu-ray" - research conducted by Cymfony challenges this claim. The study findings reveal that gamers were dissatisfied with the inclusion of a Blu-ray player in the PS3 due to increased costs without an alternative choice. Currently in the market earlier than Blu-ray, HD-DVD holds an advantage over it in terms of pricing and film availability.

Blu-ray technology is currently more expensive due to limited economies of scale. However, the Blu-ray Disc Association predicts that as production volume increases and costs decrease, Blu-ray will eventually become comparable to DVDs in terms of

cost. Additionally, a wide range of complementary products such as players, recorders, drives, writers, and media will attract users and increase the installed base.

According to Utterback and Abernathy's technology evolution model, Blu-ray is currently in the later stage of its fluid phase and progressing towards the next phase known as the specific phase where architecture stabilizes. On the other hand, HD-DVD has an advantage as it was introduced first in the market for next generation optical disc formats and leads due to lower costs.

Therefore, there will be fierce competition between these formats in the future with consumers having time before deciding which format they prefer. The ultimate winner has not yet emerged.