Consumers will be the winners, through better quality home movies and lower prices, when Toshiba finally calls time on its DVD technology, ending a long-running battle to set the format for next-generation discs.
Viewers seeking sharper movies on high-definition DVDs will no longer have to choose between rival incompatible formats. A single format should help accelerate the shift to the new technology in the $24 billion (12 billion pound) home DVD market.
"I would expect a more aggressive push towards Blu-ray in the second half, resulting in more movie content, more stand-alone DVD players, and prices for these players falling to attractive levels by Christmas."
"Prices for players need to fall to $200 and below before they get consideration from the mass market, and I would expect companies would push prices down aggressively now that the uncertainty over the format war is over."
Companies in the Blu-ray camp, which include Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research), Dell Inc (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research), Philips (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research), could start investing more aggressively in the technology and get a head-start in terms of launching products, analysts said.
Now that the high definition format war is over, Blu-Ray has another problem to worry about: getting people to let go of their cheap dvd players for the currently ridiculously expensive Blu-Ray Players. People will probably wait for the prices to drop before adopting the new format. It is good that the format war is over so that the product can be more widely adopted and used, but it probably won't be mainstream for a while.
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