John-ShepardWhenever the market is in the midst of a format transition, everyone has a lot of questions and the doom and gloom typically runs rampant. But what if we simply compare the last transition to the current one?
DVD owns the market and completely erased VHS from the face of the earth (well, for the most part), as the digital era arrived and gained complete control. Now, the high-definition Blu-Ray format has eliminated its only competition in HD-DVD and seeks to supplant DVD, although some reports would have you believe it's not doing the job. Well, not so. According to statistics compiled by EngadgetHD and Pali Capital's Richard Greenfield, Blu-Ray is coming along at a much faster rate than DVD. After two years, about 1.2 million DVD players had been sold, and in that same time frame, an estimated 2.5 million Blu-Ray players have been sold…and that number certainly doesn't include PlayStation 3 sales. Furthermore, Blu-Ray sales appear to have been unaffected by the economic downturn over the holidays, as it has "doubled its market share of the top 20 titles in the past six months." Remember, it takes some time for an entire market – like home movie viewing – to completely switch formats, but Blu-Ray is actually ahead of schedule.
There's no doubt that Sony used the PS3 as a Trojan Horse for Blu-Ray, and quite clearly, that move seems to have worked. Of course, it would help if more movies like "The Dark Knight" hit store shelves; that thing pretty much exploded and became gigantic for Blu-Ray.
