The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
Another factor, was that there continues to be simply far more
consumers that can take advantage of the Blu-ray format. Sales of
standalone HD DVD and Blu-ray players are still ridiculously small.
However, there are already an estimated 7 million Playstation 3
consoles in the hands of consumers and, with sales of the Blu-ray
equipped console rapidly gaining momentum, that number could swell to
20 million or more by the end of this year.
The fact that the new PS3 had a dearth of
exclusive games titles in 2007 meant that the device was being used by
many of its owners mainly to watch Blu-ray movies. As result, Blu-ray
format rentals and purchases clearly outnumbered those of HD DVD.
Realizing on which side their bread was likely to be buttered, a number
of video retailers the world over announced exclusive backing for
Blu-ray. In the US, major video rental chain Blockbuster announced that
it would only stock Blu-ray titles in most of its stores.
Toshiba and the HD DVD camp have fought hard to stay in the race,
citing more sales of standalone players, the add-on player for the Xbox
360 console and HD DVD drives in computers. The fact is, however, there
are already too many PS3 consoles and other Blu-ray players directly
connected to TV screens and too many exclusive Blu-ray titles. With
Warner Bros jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon, the future looks bleak
for HD DVD.
So what about the threat from the net? The shift away from movies on
disks will happen like it is right now with music but there are still
many battles to be fought and therefore the market for HD disks is
likely to still have a few years of lifespan ahead.
Meanwhile, the burning question still remains: is it game over for HD
DVD? It is tempting to say yes. However, Universal, Paramount and
Dreamworks, continue to keep the format alive, so the answer for now is
still no but the beast is mortally wounded.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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