Has Sony Truly Won?
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Yes, it is sadly true. In case you haven’t already heard it in the news, Sony’s Blu-ray has officially beaten Toshiba’s HD DVD. It was announced to the world on February 19, 2008. I am sincerely sorry to those of you who bought HD DVD players and discs. As I stated in an earlier post (Blu-ray vs. HD DVD), the best way to go would have been to just wait it out till there was an official winner. I thought that within a month or so there would be a true winner. It seems that it has happened much more quickly, and that I was a bit inaccurate.
Has a short-term winner truly won long-term?
In my opinion, Sony is not thinking about the future. They are being extremely naive because although the format war for Hi-Def Discs is over, video competition is not. There are a variety of things that not only now, but in the future will make discs in general useless. To better explain my theory, observe the fact the the new MacBook Air no longer has a disc drive. Now although this is just one examply, it is a beginning to what will be the standard in the future.
The internet is taking over!
It is undeniable what you can do these days with a computer and an internet connection. YouTube, Online VOD (Video On Demand) Services, Torrents and an array of other services and softwares are taking over, allowing people to watch when the want. It’s not only faster, but cheaper and can even be simpler in some cases. Why would you go out to a store and pay from $15 - $50 bucks on a disc when you can go get it online much cheaper.
There are many things that contribute to the outrageous price of a disc such as the case, production costs, and disc itself. When you buy online, you practically eliminate all of these leaving you with the product in its purest form without the additional costs.
What should Sony do?
Sony needs to stop worrying about materials and focus more on the internet. This will in the long-term, if done efficiently, generate more revenue and guarantee their place in the multimedia marketplace.
If you have an opinion on this, please feel free to leave a comment.
3 Comments on this post
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George Rosso said:
Of course it’s all opinions, but where I am I can’t see the Internet delivering decent HD content for a while yet - the bandwidth required is huge.. tv shows on demand look awful even on an average monitor, nevermind a cinema screen.. are they really going to stream at 40Mbps for comparable HD quality?
Also, the macbook air is missing far more than an optical drive.. it’s an (albeit very nice) niche product IMHO.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 am -
Jake Cohen said:
Actually, services like http://www.BitTorrent.com offer high quality videos at a relatively low price. It’s true though that On Demand looks pretty at the moment, but I’m talking about the future here. That is what Sony needs to invest in, not the present. A year from now, I’m sure that On Demand quality will change as well as the quality in the other fields of online video. For instance take a look at Veoh and DivX. There really is a lot of quality out there if you know where to look.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm -
Matt Gorelik said:
George,
Jake is definitely right here. Now that broadcasting companies such as the NBC Corporation and Fox Broadcasting are taking the internet as a large media choice (Hulu.com and Torrent Files), they stream directly from digital TV to the internet using compressors like DivX and Veoh to ensure excellent quality. And torrent creators such as Axxo know how to compress videos at excellent quality yet keep them at around 700MB.The only benefit of Hd-DVD’s at the moment is the size of the viewing screen. But even that has become sort of obsolete since many people now just get projectors, plug them into their computers, and watch on that. Who needs a 50 inch TV when you can do that and watch it on something like a 100 inch projection screen?
On-Demand will take over the video business, there’s just no other alternative. Waiting in line at a store, DRIVING to the store and blowing gas, and then paying 15 bucks to own a DVD you might only see once? What’s the point? NetFlix I can kind of understand, since it’s just pretty convenient, but it’s also EXPENSIVE.
Imo,
Free Online Video/Torrents > On-Demand > TiVo/DVR to record a movie on HBO or something and play it back > Watching a movie on TV > Paying for full quality DVD’s on the internet (like view on your computer) > NetFlix > Buying DVD’s.February 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 am