A few weeks back a Samsung exec predicted that the Blu-ray format would be a short-lived one – in fact, he reckoned it only had five years left, with downloads superseding it as the hi-def video format of choice. Not true, say Sony: Blu-ray will live on!
Sony’s Rick Clancy, writing on the Sony Electronics Blog, says that Samsung’s claim “couldn’t be further from the truth”, citing the millions (and counting) of PlayStation 3 consoles in circulation as an indicator that Blu-ray will be in an awful lot of homes – and that it can co-exist alongside downloads from the PSN for “perhaps a decade”.
He goes on to mention Hollywood’s increased adoption of the format, the rising number of HDTV sales and the fact that broadband simply isn’t up to the task of delivering everybody’s hi-def content as further reasons to back Blu-ray sticking around. All of which are sort of true now – but what about in five years time when we’re all rocking super-speedy 500Mbps broadband…?
