Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Microsoft has gone into bat for the Toshiba HD DVD technology on it Xbox site extolling the virtues of the high definition video format while explaining why it is better value than the competing Blu-ray technology from Sony.
In an online pamphlet on its Xbox site,
titled HD DVD Explained, Microsoft talks about its proposed HD DVD
add-on, which will connect to the Xbox 360 console via a USB 2.0 port.
It is fairly clear from the outset of Microsoft's diatribe, that its
intention is to denigrate Blu-ray, while elevating HD DVD. The pamphlet
a touch misleadingly says that there is no difference between the video
support of the two formats as far as HD resolution is concerned, while
ignoring the clearly superior storage capabilities of the Blu-ray
disks. HD DVD stores 15GB on each side, while Blu-ray can store 25GB
per side.
Then Microsoft plays up the advantages of a double sided HD DVD and DVD
disks recently announced by warner Home Video, without of course
mentioning that they cost double the price of ordinary disks and are
probably the dumbest idea to come out of the video industry.
Finally of course, Microsoft focusses on cost. HD DVD players start at
$499 (not $500), while the cheapest Blu-ray players are "expected" to
start at $1000 (not $999). Of course, as Microsoft fails to mention,
consumers could wait for the arrival of PlayStation 3, and get a
high-end games console and integrated Blu-ray player all for $499 (not
$500).
Now Microsoft promises that the cost of HD DVD add-on for Xbox 360 will
be good news. That's nice to hear. Well it had better be less than $100
for the combination console and HD DVD player to come in under the
price of the PS3. However, let's imagine it does come in at say $49.95,
which would make it $50 cheaper than the PS3. Does this not make the
price difference of $500 between HD DVD and Blu-ray players currently
purveyed around the marketplace sheer nonsense?
Judging by the history of DVD player pricing, both Blu-ray and HD DVD
players, once they become widely available, will before too long become
commodity items costing something like $39.95 at a bulk electrical
store. Eventually all desktop and notebook PCs will have them on board
as standard.
Forget pricing, it's a red herring. For once, let's forget the marketing hype and let the better technology win.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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