Who will win in DVD war?
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 Corp.-backed Blu-ray and Toshiba-supported HD-DVD.
The DVD format exploded into a multi-billion-dollar global industry for movie and TV studios in large part because the largely universal format delivered a more convenient way to own movies than its predecessor, the VHS videotape.
The new formats are being introduced just as DVD sales level off, after consumers built up libraries of their favorite movies and TV shows at deeply discounted prices.
Electronics retailers, such as Best Buy and CompUSA are frustrated by the raging format war, fearful of another decade-long tussle similar to the one between VHS and Betamax. They have been predicting a lackluster Christmas selling season, expecting consumers to wait for one format to win out.
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- Who will win in DVD war?
- Bill Gates at the International CES 2007 at Las Vegas